Agents Of Different Types
by AspiringAuthor29
Summary: The Phoenix has been hunting Murdoc down for a while when a lead comes in the form of one of Murdoc's hits. They're sent to investigate, but they don't know that a certain BAU team was also sent to check out the same case. MacGyver/Criminal Minds crossover!
1. Chapter 1

**Hi guys! I started working on this immediately after finishing my most recent MacGyver story. So, since it was most requested, here is a Criminal Minds/MacGyver Crossover! I am so sad that Criminal Minds ended after 15 years, but I think it would be so fun to see them team up with the Phoenix. Jack and Derek Morgan are both in this story because they are great characters. I think it would be really fun to see Jack and Derek together, Riley and Penelope, Matty and Hotch, and above all, Spencer and Mac! This is going to be a multi-chapter fic, so prepare for that. There will be headings in the beginning of this in order to tell you if it is the Phoenix or BAU POV, so pay attention to that. I do not own MacGyver, Criminal Minds, Star Wars, which I briefly mention, or a quote that I use from Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of Red Death". But, without further ado, here it is!**

**BAU**

"Alright I know it's early, but let's get started," Hotch said stepping into the conference room. It was 5:00 in the morning, but everyone was already there. All of the agents looked tired and worn out from their early awakening, well everyone except Reid who was buzzing with the caffeine from his sugar coffee. Not only that, but he was younger than the rest of them and therefore had the stamina to be up this early in the morning.

"Actually, the pioneers would have been up over an hour ago in order to work the fields. Compared to them, we slept in," Reid said matter-of-factly. "Reid!" the rest of the agents groaned. He didn't even have the good sense to look embarrassed at their protests.

"Okay, friends, we got a baddy on the lose so it might be a good idea for us to get this going," Penelope said from the front of the room. Everyone quieted down after this and Garcia started. "Alright, our victim is a man named Robert Jarar, age 25. He was found dead with a bullet to the head a few hours ago on the outskirts of Los Angeles. You know, the real sketchy parts. Anyway, that's what I got."

"Did Mr. Jarar have any enemies? Anyone he owed money or anyone that would even have a motive to want him dead?" Morgan asked.

"No, according to this, he had a pretty uneventful life. Worked at his family's store since he got out of high school, had one girlfriend in his whole life, graduated average in his class...wait," she exclaimed suddenly, "I just found some medical records from a hospital about a year ago. It says that he had extreme brain trauma and was in a coma for weeks after a late-night car accident. The girlfriend was killed in the accident. He was tested for alcohol and drug use, but nothing was ever found to have caused the accident." Garcia's fingers were flying across her tablet as she found report after report on the accident.

"If he was never convicted of anything, why would someone want him dead?" J.J asked.

"It could be completely unrelated to his murder, though. There's really no proof that the two events have any connection," Emily said after a moment.

Reid stared at the case pictures displayed on the front board. "Look at the way the bullet hole is placed. It's right between the eyes, enough to kill but not to bleed that much. The person who shot that must have had pretty good aim and a high-tech gun."

"What makes you think the person had a high-tech gun, Reid?" Hotch asked him. "If he had been shot from close, the bullet would have had enough momentum to cause a lot more damage. Therefore, there would have been a lot more blood coming from the wound. He was obviously shot form far away, and unless he has some sort of supernatural aim, the unsub would have needed a pretty good gun to land the mark that perfectly," Reid answered.

"So, we're talking someone who has done this before and feels comfortable enough to go for a head shot. Someone who's a good a shot and also has the kind of connections to get their hands on a decent gun," Emily observed, "Was there anything else at the crime scene? Anything that seems strange or particularly different for this one?"

"Only one thing: the victim's phone was gone through after the murder and it was discovered that he received a text message from an anonymous number about an hour before his estimated time of death. It read "There are chords in the heart of the most reckless which cannot be touched without emotion," Penelope recited off of her tablet.

"That's a quote from "The Masque of Red Death" by Edgar Allan Poe," Reid explained.

"It could be the unsub's signature. Texting book or poem quotes to the victim before they kill them. We've seen stuff like it before," Rossi reasoned.

"It could be, or it could be a way for the unsub to taunt their victims before they kill them. A sort of game of cat and mouse," Reid added, "The quote itself is saying that some problems cannot be dealt with even in the most unemotional people without displaying some sort of emotional reaction. The unsub could be saying that something that effected the victim emotionally can not have him acting impassive towards it."

Everyone stared at Reid until they realized that they were doing it. After a moment, Hotch spoke, "Alright it seems like enough to investigate. Wheels up to LA in twenty."

**Phoenix**

"Come on man, you can't seriously be tellin' me that Luke's better than Han!" Jack exclaimed in astonishment, "I mean, I've never felt such betrayal."

"First of all, just because Han's a good shot doesn't make him superior to the other characters. Second of all, Luke has such a higher mentality and understanding of physics and the laws of force than Han could even begin to fathom," Mac countered.

"What do you mean?! Physics has nothing to do with Star Wars, you nerd. Only you could find the science in classic entertainment. Han is so much better because he can shoot _and _he's obligated to protect some skinny blond kid," Jack justified.

"Oh, I get it. This is an egotistical thing for you. You think that you have some sort of connection to Han," Mac said as they walked into the War Room and shut the door behind themselves.

"Hey, it ain't easy taking care of stubborn, too-wise-for-their-own-good kids. I can relate with Han. And there you have it kids, why Han Solo is way better than Luke Skywalker."

"Luke," Mac rasped covering the word up with a cough. Jack cupped his hand behind his ear and leaned towards the other man, "What was that slick? Can you repeat that statement?"

Mac opened his mouth to reply before Matty cut in, "Can we get started or do I need to reschedule so you two can argue over a movie." She raised her eyebrows threateningly, daring them to talk back. Matty may have been a lot shorter than the rest of them, but man did they look the other way when she got in a mood.

"Go ahead Matty," Mac told her sheepishly. _Suck up_ Jack mouthed at him. Matty had her back turned towards the screen, but she commented, "Just for that Jack, I got to side with Mac on this one. All Han could do was shoot a gun." Mac smiled triumphantly at Jack to which the older man promptly and very maturely stuck his tongue out. He put on an air of offense at Matty's "all he could do was shoot a gun" comment but didn't get time to express his displeasure before Matty started telling them about the new mission assignment.

"Since we can finally start, I'd like to start out with saying that this is not something that we would usually deal with. A man named Robert Jarar was found dead on the outskirts of LA," Matty started out.

"Dead bodies? Isn't that like FBI stuff?" Bozer cut in

"Yes, it is Bozer, and if you would have let me finish, you would have known why we're taking care of this," Matty said irritably. Jack gave him a _you're in trouble look_ but he stopped immediately after one glare from Matty. "Anyway, Mr. Jarar was 25 and boring, to put it bluntly, except for a car accident last year. Riley why don't you fill everyone in on the accident last year." After some typing, Riley told the rest of the group about Robert's medical reports and the car accident.

"I still don't get what were doin' invetigatin' bodies. Is there a bomb about to go off or some bio-weapon needin' recovery that I missed?" Jack asked, confused.

"Usually, your right Jack, we would let the local feds handle this, but there is a reason I called you all in. Riley went through Mr. Jarar's phone and found that he received a text message shortly before he was killed. It was a quote from Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of Red Death" and was sent from an anonymous number," Matty answered.

"Is the phone traceable?" Bozer asked. Riley quickly typed something into her keyboard and then answered, "I'm working on it right now, but so far I've got nothing. The sending number is heavily encrypted. It's almost as if the killer knew someone like me would try to trace the number."

"Wait, the person who did this is quoting poetry and sending it in text form before killing the person. And like Riley said, it's almost like the killer knew she would try to break the encryption, but what if they did?" Mac figured out.

Matty knew that he had figured it out, too, because she said, "Exactly. That's why I've called you all here. The poetry combined with the skill and finesse of the kill is leading me to believe that this is the work of Murdoc."

"So, this is less of trying to figure out who did it and more of followin' Murdoc's trail," Jack concluded.

"Right, that's why I want you guys to head out there and see if you find anything unusual. Riley keep trying to break through that encryption, Bozer your going on this one, Jack take some extra ammo, and Mac…just be MacGyver," Matty finished, a small smile on her face.

"What if this is a trap? I mean Murdoc's probably already three steps ahead of us if not more. You know how much he likes toying with us, especially Mac," Bozer asked anxiously.

"That's exactly why I need you guys to go. This may be the best chance we have to catch Murdoc, or at least get back on his trail. He's more likely to be in the area if you all go, _especially _Mac. And before you even say anything Jack, I am not offering Mac up as bait. I am merely saying that it is more likely for Murdoc to be in the vicinity if Mac and the rest of you are all at the scene. Now go," Matty ordered the agents. Jack looked half awestruck at the fact that Matty had known exactly what he was thinking, although this was Matty they were talking about.

The group headed out the War Room doors and towards the parking garage where a Phoenix vehicle was waiting to take them to the scene of the murder.

**BAU**

The group of agents walked towards the alley that was roped off by yellow crime scene tape. The place was swarming with local investigators and almost completely surrounded by cop cars. This made the BAU's black armored vehicle seem very out of place in all of the cacophony.

As they approached, a young officer ducked out form under the tape. He jogged over to the group and shook hands with everyone. "Hi, I'm Detective Martinez. I'm assuming you're from the BAU by the looks of your car?"

"Yes, we're from the BAU. What do you have for us so far?" Hotch asked immediately taking charge.

"I'm guessing that whatever you already know is about as much as we know. We haven't really found any new information since we released the case files out to you before. We've left the body where it was found, but I'll warn you that it isn't pretty. It's been laying here for over a day in the California heat," the officer told them.

"Yeah, its pretty hot over here," Emily commented. Detective Martinez gave her a strange look and then said, "You haven't felt anything yet. It's only nine in the morning. Wait until two or three and you're going to be wishing you had stayed on the East Coast."

The agents started shedding their sweaters and jackets and followed Detective Martinez under the crime scene tape. Hotch and Rossi knelt by the body and began looking It over while the others checked around the area.

"It looks like you were right Reid," Rossi commented after inspecting the bullet wound, "The unsub had to have had a pretty nice gun to make this kind of clean shot."

"The unsub made the shot from up there." Morgan said pointing at a rooftop slightly diagonal from the body's resting place. He traced his finger through the air, mimicking a bullet, and walked along to copy its path. "Yeah that seems about right. The unsub had the right angle and view from up there to do it."

J.J turned and looked at the young detective. "Were there any fingerprints or boot prints? Anything to give any clue as to where the unsub went?" The detective looked at her. "Excuse me, unsub?" he asked, confused. "It stands for unknown subject," Reid explained gazing away distractedly. The detective just nodded and turned back to J.J in order to answer her question.

"No. Nothing was found. No hair, fingerprints, boot tracks, nothing. I mean, not even a fingernail. The killer even picked the bloody bullet up off of the ground and cleaned it off."

"Wait, he cleaned the bullet off, but left it in the alley? He didn't take it with him?" Emily asked in surprise. Detective Martinez just shook his head. "Yep, he left it here, perfectly placed beside the victim's head."

"Doesn't it all seem a bit too perfect?" Reid asked, "I know this guy is experienced, but doesn't this seem a little obsessive? It seems like the unsub is still taunting, only us instead of the victim this time. Even killers with experience make some sort of slip up, but this guy almost seems fake." The other agents all nodded in agreement.

"It could be another part of the unsub's signature," Rossi suggested, "Almost psyching us out by being too good at what he does. Making us think that he will be harder to catch than he really will be, perhaps? It wouldn't be the first time we've seen something like that."

"Yes, but Reid's right. It doesn't fell like this is part of the unsub's signature, it's just his nature," Hotch said at the same time Morgan muttered, "When isn't Reid right." Hotch ignored him and continued, "It almost feels as if the unsub was not only targeting the person they killed, but also the investigators."

"So, you're saying that the unsub was psychologically targeting us?" Emily inquired. Hotch shook his head. "I don't think he was targeting us, as in the BAU, though. I think he was after someone else or another group of law enforcement." They all contemplated this for a few moments before Rossi spoke up, "Who else would the unsub be targeting?" Hotch shook his head in resignation, "I don't know."

All of the sudden, a black car pulled up next to the BAU armored car. All heads turned towards it and Detective Martinez started to head out in order to tell the civilians that this was restricted territory but stopped when one of his colleagues ran out to meet them. The doors opened and a man with short, greying brown hair, muscles, and sunglasses stepped out of the driver's side. A pretty girl with light brown skin and curly black hair got out of the back holding what looked like both an expensive computer and a homemade one combined. From the other back door stepped a man that was younger than the first, but about the same age as the girl. He had much darker skin and short, curly black hair. Finally, the passenger door opened to reveal a handsome young boy. He looked like the youngest one of the group and had the strongest California vibe out of all of them. He was thin, but not in a sickly way, and he had immaculate, bright blond hair.

The group was met by the other officer halfway to the alley and the group talked. The BAU agents exchanged looks. "Who are they?" J.J asked what they were all wondering. They all looked helplessly at one and other until the group of newcomers reached the alley entrance.

Detective Martinez's colleague, Detective Reynolds, introduced the new group to the agents. "BAU agents, these are agents from the Phoenix."

**Okay, there's chapter 1. Things are about to get fun in the next chapter! I hope you like it since it was most requested. I probably won't be able to update until the weekend because of a lot of stuff I have going on, but I promise I will try and get this updated as quickly as I can. Thanks and see you in the next chapter!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Here's the next chapter! In this chapter I'm going to include some awkward moments between the groups, Penelope snooping through all of the Phoenix agent's histories, and a typical Mac save of course! But, on with this thing.**

**BAU**

The BAU agents just stared at the other group. "Phoenix?" Prentiss asked finally. Detective Reynolds and Detective Martinez went off to review something together, leaving the two groups of agents. The blond agent nodded, "Yeah, it's a covert agency. We usually don't do this kind of stuff, but we're here on a lead we've been chasing for a while."

There were a few moments of awkward silence between the groups before Hotch spoke up. "We're from the BAU and already running this case. We really don't need any other agents around here, especially when the scene is so temperamental." He gave one of his famous intimidating "Hotch stares" to emphasis his point.

"Yeah, we get that man, but orders are orders and The Boss Lady says we gotta be here," the older man said, crossing his arms and returning Hotch's stare without the slightest hint of fear. More awkward silence.

"So…I guess introductions are an order," Emily said hesitantly. She looked at Hotch, waiting for him to make the first move. After a moment, he extended his hand towards the oldest agent, "I'm Supervisory Special Agent Aaron Hotchner, but Hotch is fine." He started gesturing towards each of his team members, "This is SSA Derek Morgan, David Rossi, Jennifer Jareau, Emily Prentiss, and Dr. Spencer Reid." Each of the agents nodded their greetings and then stared expectantly at the other four people.

The man that had shook hands with Hotch crossed his arms. "Well I'm Jack, sorry we don't do last names, too many people who want us to kick the bucket if you know what I mean," he lowered his voice at the last part. The BAU agents looked slightly troubled by this statement. "Anyways," Jack continued, "This is Riley, Bozer, and our own personal nerd, Mac."

Mac looked mildly agitated at the older man's introduction and he thumped him right on the chest with his fist as he passed him on his way further into the crime scene. Jack grunted, "Love you too man." Everyone else followed the blond as he knelt beside the blood-stained concrete.

"Was there any DNA found?" Mac asked the BAU quietly.

"The killer left nothing behind. Trust us, everything has already been reviewed by some of our most prestigious labs. There is nothing visibly here," Hotch said coming to stand closer to the boy.

"Exactly, there is nothing visibly here. To the naked eye, the scene is clean, but what most people don't know is that we leave chemical and bacterial footprints every step we take. The key is knowing how to make these footprints appear," Mac stated while swiveling his head around the alley. After a moment, he ran towards a dumpster up against a building. He began pulling what looked like an old tarp and some bare wires out from it and the side of the building.

The BAU agents were all disgusted by his impromptu dumpster diving, but the Phoenix agents looked on impassively. Emily took a step forward, "Hey, I'm not sure you should be messing with any of that stuff. You could be tampering with crucial evidence!" She tried to go forward and stop him, but Jack put out a hand and stopped her. Everyone from the BAU froze, but Jack held steady, "Woah, hold up there Chica, he's good. Don't mess with his mojo."

"But he should be certified to handle evidence. Only select people have authorization," J.J said coming to Emily's defense.

"Oh, he's certified…in everything," Jack finished with hints of pride.

"Well what's he doing anyway?" Morgan asked eyeing the boy who was building some sort of tarp-wire contraption.

After a moment, the other three people chorused, "Being MacGyver."

"Asking what Mac's doing is like asking why the sky is blue. It's pointless and everyone just accepts it because that's how it's always been," the dark skin man, Bozer, said.

After that, everyone quietly watched Mac with fascination. Eventually, he finished and began to wave his glorified sheet a bit above the ground.

"Alright, not that I don't love the show, bud, but what exactly are ya doin'?" Jack asked.

Mac answered while continuing to wave his device over the ground, "Like I said, everyone leaves a chemical footprint. I'll save you the science, but basically I'm going to pull the most recent footprint with matching bacteria to the blood up from the ground and we will be able to see it."

He walked around the area, still waving his tarp around until a slight zapping noise could be heard from it. Mac held it up to reveal the light brown silhouette of a boot print on the bottom. Everyone just stared at it in stunned silence, everyone being the people who weren't used to him. Riley didn't hesitate to take a picture of it with her phone.

"Hey, Ri, can you run this through…" Mac started.

"Already on it," she interjected, her hands flying at a nauseating speed over her laptop keys. After a few moments, she spoke up, "Alright, the shoe print didn't match any shoe in any database I ran it through, meaning it's most likely custom made. But I compared it to the boot prints we recovered in the room Murdoc held you in Mac, and it's almost a 100% match."

"Damn," Jack muttered, running a hand through his sparse hair.

"Wait who's Murdoc? What does he have to do with this?" Rossi asked. The Phoenix agents all exchanged looks but were interrupted by the tone of Riley's laptop telling them that there was an incoming video message. She opened it up and looked at the caller ID.

"Crap, it's Matty! Should I accept it?" she asked frantically.

"We have to answer. You know how she gets when you don't pick up!" Bozer cried, his voice rising.

"Woah, woah, woah, did no one call her when we got here? No one!?" Jack asked and groaned when they all replied no, "Great, now she's gonna chew us all out! But Bozer's right, you have to take it." She nodded and clicked the 'Accept' button.

The four Phoenix agents gathered around the screen while the BAU agents shuffled off to the side. They watched the group with amusement as an authoritative woman's voice sounded from the other end, "What do you guys not get about the words 'Call when you get there'? Which one was it, Dalton beat the wrong person up or Blondie blew up something he shouldn't have?" After none of the people responded she continued, "So you genuinely forgot? Well that's a first. Usually you're trying to avoid me when you go dark like that. I want a status report NOW!"

"Wow, they have a girl Hotch," Morgan said, smiling. J.J and Emily snickered in response, but Hotch did not look amused, or rather less amused than usual.

"…Report back to the War Room and we will discuss this further," the woman said before signing off.

Riley shut her laptop and they all started to head towards their vehicle. Mac stopped and gazed at the agents, "Thanks. We'll be back with more information, but I have a feeling we will be seeing each other again." With that he turned and followed the other three agents to the car.

The agents left were all a bit blown away. These people had just showed up and taken over the entire case, that Mac kid had magically made a boot print that dozens of CSI agents had overlooked, and on top of that, there was this suspicious Murdoc character that they had mentioned. It was all pretty overwhelming.

They all expressed their thanks towards the detectives and headed off towards the local police department where they had set up their equipment.

When they got there, they all made their way towards an empty conference room and Hotch video called Garcia. She picked up on the first ring, her face popping up on the screen. "Hello, all-knowing, all-seeing Garcia, what can I do for you?"

"Garcia, we need you to do some research on a covert agency called the Phoenix here in LA," Hotch instructed, "Along with four agents that possibly work there. We don't have full names for them, only Jack, Riley, Bozer, and Mac."

"Can do. I'll call you back in a few quick moments with the info, bye," she chirped before ending the call. Hotch sighed at her excessive vibrancy, but if you worked on the BAU, it was something that you just got used to.

He gazed around the round table at his team. "Okay, what do we have so far?"

Morgan spoke up, "You mean besides the random agency that shows up and takes our case along with their freakishly good-at-what-they-do people?"

"I meant with the case, but hopefully we will have more information on the agency and their agents when Garcia calls back. Come on, what do we know about the case?" Hotch insisted.

"Wait we're still handling the case? But I thought this other agency was taking over," Rossi wondered, confused.

"There's really no reason that we couldn't still keep the case along with the Phoenix. It seems we have different motives in solving the case anyway, so if worse comes to worst, we can work with them and see what we get," Emily said, receiving an approving nod from Hotch.

"Also, we have this "Murdoc" that the agents mentioned. I don't know what he has to do with any of this, but they seemed pretty nervous at the mention of his name," J.J added putting air quotes around the name Murdoc. Everyone else nodded in agreement.

Reid looked up, "It seems that this Murdoc character may be the lead that they mentioned. There is also a chance that he could be our Unsub."

"Mac said that we'll be probably be seeing each other again, so we can just ask them then," Morgan advised. They all sat in silence for a while until a beeping resounded through the room signaling that Garcia was calling back with information.

She popped up on the screen after they accepted her call. "Alright, so I couldn't find any hits on a government agency called "the Phoenix", so I tried to find any reference to some sort of Phoenix in LA. The only thing I found was a think tank called The Phoenix Foundation. I almost overlooked it, but I decided to give it a look. When I went into their system, I typed in the names that you gave me. I got hits for Jack as a Jack Dalton, Riley as a Riley Davis, and Bozer as a Wilt Bozer, but nothing came back for a Mac. The closest I got was an Angus MacGyver," she supplied factually.

"That's it," Reid exclaimed, snapping his fingers, "They called him MacGyver one time at the scene."

"Ummm, not that this is any of my business or anything, but why am I doing this?" Penelope asked skeptically.

"At the scene we met up with some agents who said they were from an agency called the Phoenix. They were investigating the case because it was apparently a lead they had been chasing for a while, but the one did some pretty wacky stuff and another is a Penelope-grade computer whiz, so we just wanted to know if they could be trusted or not," Morgan informed her.

"Oh, okay, so I'll give you what little info I have on them then," Penelope said quickly, "To start out with, this "think tank" has some serious cyber security going. I mean, I thought I was paranoid when it came to this stuff. Anyway, whoever set their network up is, it pains me to say this, but beyond my skill level. That's why it took me so long to call back. The number of encryptions in their system would take a regular hacker weeks to crack, if they could do it at all. By the time they managed to get through the system, they would have been counter-attacked by an inner source weeks before. It's really an ingenious system..." Garcia rambled.

"Uh, Garcia, the agents?" Emily prodded

"Oh, right, well since I am a literal goddess when it comes to tech, it took me no less than forty-five minutes to break through their first layer of security. I was almost immediately kicked out, but I was able to copy some basic files on your people," Penelope said.

"Keep going," Rossi encouraged, trying to keep their flighty tech analyst on task.

"So first up I got Miss Riley Davis. I only have the basics on them, but she grew up in LA. She is currently twenty-seven years old and doesn't have any siblings. Her mom's name is Diane Davis and dad's is Elwood. Dad left when she was nine," Garcia started.

"Possible rough home life," Hotch murmured, easily slipping into the mindset of his profiler self.

Garcia continued, "Her mom started dating a man named Jack Dalton when she was twelve-"

"There's an emotional attachment between Jack and Riley," Morgan went on.

"I'm never going to finish if you don't stop interrupting me!" Penelope cried and the agents looked guilty, but they quieted down. "Thank you. Now, they broke up when she was thirteen and he disappeared for a while. She graduated high school when she was eighteen but was arrested at twenty-four for hacking…hacking the NSA!"

"So, she has a criminal record," Emily repeated.

"Stop interrupting! She was hired at what was DXS at the time about a year ago on probation but was recently released from it a few months ago. Getting off tack here, but DXS is what the Phoenix was going as until about eight months ago. It stands for Department of External Services, but it mysteriously went under a new name those eight months ago."

At this point, the agents were too afraid to interrupt, but they quietly absorbed the information like the good FBI agents they were. After a stretch of silence from the group, Penelope took it as an okay to move on to the profile of the next agent.

"Next we have Mr. Wilt Bozer. He was born and raised in Mission City, California. He lived with his mom, dad, I don't have names for them, and little brother, Josh," she read on, "Aww, that's terrible!"

"What is it?" J.J asked.

"When he was ten, it was his brother's fifth birthday. Their parents went out to get the cake and the two boys were home alone. Apparently, Josh found his dad's gun and began chasing Wilt around the house. The boy tripped and the gun went off. H-he…oh God, I can't go on," she sobbed.

None of the agents had to ask what happened. You didn't really need to be a profiler to figure out what had happened. They all sat in sad silence while Garcia grabbed a tissue to wipe her eyes. When she was done sniffling, she went on.

"Shortly before the…umm…incident…he met an Angus MacGyver. Wilt took a liking to him and they soon became best friends. Bozer never really got into much trouble that I can see on his meager profile anyway. He graduated high school at a normal age and moved to LA along with Angus. He started working at a local burger joint while also trying to become a film producer. Needless to say, it didn't work out too well for him. A few months after Miss Davis started at, once again what used to be DXS, Bozer was also suddenly hired there."

"This place was originally called DXS, but then suddenly switched ownership? Doesn't that seem a bit strange?" Rossi asked.

"It may not be strange at all. It could be as simple as something such as tax evasion or trouble within their economic structure," Reid told them.

"That's a possibility, but I agree with J.J, it does seem strange," Hotch confirmed.

"Here's an idea, why don't you let me finish the files and then you can all go and profile it up!" Garcia cried on the edge of exploding. The conversation immediately ceased among the groups and they turned towards her attentively.

"Up next we got Mr. Jack Dalton. He's originally from Texas. I don't know his mom's name, but his dad's name was Jack Dalton Sr., and he has six brothers and sisters. He grew up on the family ranch, was your typical tough guy-jock-popular boy of his high school. Right after he graduated, he enlisted in the Army, following in his dad's footsteps who was a pilot in the Air Force. He did one tour of Afghanistan before he was swept up by an elite Delta team for his skills as a sniper. He served on the team for about ten years before he was honorably discharged. After that, he was hired by the CIA. He worked with them for another seven years before a mission went south and he almost immediately resigned," Garcia read off his file.

"Dalton seems like he's quite the tough guy," Morgan said, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms.

"Yes, he does. But that could also be a potential problem. It says in his file that he was an expert sniper and was picked up by both an elite Delta team and the CIA. That means that he is very good with a gun and probably hand-to-hand combat. He could possibly be dangerous," Hotch reasoned.

Garcia huffed, but didn't even bother to complain about their interrupting. They were all like excited preschoolers when they got a good case and they never shut up. She just went on with what she had been saying. "He then went and reenlisted, getting back on his old Delta team for a few years. He resigned from the team then but remained in the Army. According to this, when he had sixty-four days left in his last tour before he was supposed to head home for good, he got paired up with a newly recruited EOD as his overwatch."

"Who was his EOD?" Reid asked.

"I was getting to that. The EOD's name was Angus MacGyver," Garcia read smiling.

"So, there's your emotional connection between the two of them," J.J said.

"I knew they had one when we met. When Dalton introduced all of them, he subtly shifted in front of MacGyver, almost like he was standing between us and him," Emily pointed out and they all nodded in agreement.

"Apparently they absolutely hated each other when they met. It wasn't until Jack had twelve days left in his tour that they started to get along. Jack stepped on and active IED. He told MacGyver to leave him and save himself because the bomb only had a little over two minutes left on the timer, but the boy refused. He disobeyed orders and went after Jack, disarming the bomb with only a few seconds left. Of course, Jack had to leave, but aww," Garcia cooed at the end.

"What!?" they all exclaimed with exasperation.

"Jack reuped for another tour on the condition that he got to be MacGyver's overwatch only," Garcia explained excitedly and continued, "After that they were both hired at DXS and worked there for about three and a half years before the name switched to the Phoenix."

"No offense, baby girl, but let's keep this going. You still got to give us the profile on MacGyver and this is taking forever," Morgan sighed.

Garcia nodded and tried to finish, "Finally we got Angus MacGyver. He was also born and raised in Mission City. His mom, Ellen MacGyver, died when he was five and his dad, James MacGyver, walked when he was ten. The boy skipped second and fourth grade and met Bozer in fifth. He has a very high IQ and his dad taught him more science and physics than Einstein knew before he left. After his dad did leave, Mac's grandpa who had heart failure moved to Mission City to raise him. He graduated high school when he was sixteen and went to college at MIT for three years. After that, he dropped out and enlisted in the Army as an EOD at the age of nineteen. Soon after he enlisted, his grandpa had a heart attack and died. He had a CO named Alfred Pena. The two of them were high in demand for their skills, especially since Mac finished his training in only a few weeks. A few months after he finished basic training, Pena died in a bomb explosion meant for Mac. After that, you all pretty much know what happens," Penelope finished.

"Thank you, Garcia, that's all we needed," Hotch told her.

"All I'm saying is, they seem like good people. They've all had some rough times and you all need to play nice, especially to Mac," Penelope barked and then signed off.

"Well now that we have all of this info, what do we do?" J.J asked.

"Now we wait to see what happens," Hotch sighed.

**This took forever. There is really no excuse for it, but I will be posting two chapters at once to make up for it. You're welcome! I hope you enjoyed and please review. Bye!**


	3. Chapter 3

**So, here's chapter 3 as promised. I'm posting it to make up for not updating this story for such a long time. I am truly sorry about it! But I hope you like the story so far; I promise there will be some action in the near future. I like to ramble, as you can tell from my stories, so here it is.**

**Phoenix**

The four agents walked towards the War Room for the second time that day, only this time there was no discussion about movies or egotistical connections to characters. They entered the room and saw Matty pacing up front, tablet in hand.

She sent them all a glare and then said, "When I tell you to report back to me, that is not a suggestion. Do I make myself clear?" Everyone looked away from her and nodded, their emotions somewhere in between embarrassment and fear.

"Alright, then that's handled. Now, I received the boot prints that Riley sent me and I too agree that those are almost a 100% match to those found in Murdoc's torture room. So, we know that it was him, but the question is, what should our next move be?" Matty gazed at the agents in front of her expectantly, wanting them to supply her with some sort of information.

Mac cleared his throat uncomfortably and then met her gaze. "Actually, Matty, we wanted to talk to you about something else first," he told her.

She looked at him suspiciously, narrowing her eyes and all. "Well spit it out then, Blondie," she ordered impatiently.

"At the scene, we met up with some agents from the FBI, the BAU in particular. They claimed to be running the same case, but they kind of know that we're not from a think tank," he said nervously.

Matty looked stunned at his confession. "Why in the HELL would you tell them that!? I mean, we didn't even do background checks on these people! Just because they're from the government doesn't mean that they are safe to tell. They could turn rogue for all you know!"

They all stayed quiet while Matty seethed and attempted to calm down. When she had finally managed to lower her anger from murderous to enraged, she turned her eyes back to her agents.

"Okay, since you felt the need to give away our most valuable secret here at the Phoenix, at least let me see some background checks on these people. Riley, get on that now," Matty commanded. Riley ducked her head towards her rig in response and began to type furiously. With a few strokes of her keys, six profiles with matching pictures appeared on the screen in the front of the room.

Matty checked them out and Riley read her reports and results from her quick background check. Of course, everything came back clean on all of them. Matty just shook her head.

"You are all lucky that everything came back clean. I still don't trust these people, especially since they are from a well-known part of the government, but I feel better knowing that they all have clean background checks," she said quietly.

They all stayed silent as Matty turned back towards the board, "We'll deal with them later. For now, let's talk about Murdoc. What else do we know?"

"Do you think this was a random kill to lure us to the scene or an actual hit he was hired to do?" Bozer asked.

"Since when have we known Murdoc to do stuff jus 'cause he wanted to. No, there's gotta be a reason he killed this dude," Jack supplied.

"I agree with Dalton for once. Nowhere in Murdoc's history has he ever just killed a person as lure, not at least since we've started tracking him. Even if his main intent was just to lure us to the scene, he would have killed Mr. Jarar for reason," Matty said.

Riley looked up from her laptop quickly, "He would have had to of known that we weren't guaranteed to show up. We usually don't deal with this kind of stuff and he ended up drawing all kinds of other federal attention. I mean, he even attracted the BAU to the scene."

"So, are we basically saying that we have no leads beside confirmation that Murdoc did do this?" Matty asked. All of the agents nodded.

"You know, the BAU is the Behavioral Analysis Unit so they specialize in these kinds of cases. They could be some help in finally catching Murdoc if we all work together," Mac said carefully, knowing that this is a sore subject with Matty. But to his surprise, she nodded.

"You're right. If they specialize in psychological behavior, they're the perfect people to help us finally keep Murdoc behind bars. Riley, get ahold of them and tell them to come to the Phoenix," she said.

**BAU**

The six BAU agents pulled into the parking lot of The Phoenix foundation. Hotch had gotten a call from a woman who introduced herself as Matilda Webber, telling them to come to the Phoenix. They all got out and gazed up at the huge glass building.

Morgan let out a low whistle, "Well this is fancy." Everyone else agreed silently.

They made their way towards the front doors and was met by what looked like a normal lobby with a fancy desk and a receptionist up front. The whole place looked like any other expensive office building lobby.

Reid leaned over and whispered, "This doesn't look like the main base for a top-secret, under the radar government agency."

"That's probably their game. The rest of the world already thinks they are a think tank. I guess this is more cover in case anyone ever comes snooping, they'll still think this is a think tank and nothing more," Hotch concluded.

"Where do we go?" J.J asked. Hotch was about to answer when Emily interjected.

"Not to raise any alarm or anything, but I really don't like the looks the receptionist is giving us." They all glanced up at the woman who was eyeing them suspiciously from across the room. Without a moment's thought, Hotch lead the group right up to her.

"Excuse me, ma'am, but we're from the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI. We're looking for a specific Phoenix team, a Matilda Webber in particular," he told her, pulling out his badge. The other five agents were quick to follow his lead in pulling out their badges.

The woman looked genuinely confused. "I'm sorry, sir, but this is just a think tank. I don't know what kind of team you're talking about, but I can send you to one of many departments if you need to do research or something like that."

"So, are you telling me that there is no government agency based in this building?" Hotch asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Sir, I'm really sorry, but I don't know what you're talking about," she said, her voice giving away nothing but genuine confusion, but none of them missed how her hand slowly moved behind the counter and seemed to flip a switch. "If there is anything else I can do for you, please-"

She was interrupted by a familiar southern drawl sounding form down the hall, "It's okay Melissa, they're with us."

Jack Dalton and Angus MacGyver emerged from a hallway leading deeper into the facility. The receptionist looked at Jack disdainfully, "Uh, it's Marissa, Jack."

He waved her off, "Whatever," he muttered. MacGyver turned towards them, "It's good to see you guys again," he said in a friendly manner.

"You're lucky you guys are even here. Man, The Boss really chewed us all out for telling you about us," Jack said easily.

"Sorry about that. I would like to ask, what did your director want us to come here for? We have a lot of work to do," Hotch asked, getting straight to the point.

"Well, tell ya'll later. For now, we've got orders to show ya around the place," Jack said. All of the BAU agents exchanged looks, but Hotch shrugged, "That's fine," he said.

"Okay, then let's start here. This is the main entrance, and our lovely receptionist of course," he started and received an irritated glare from the girl behind the desk. Mac jumped in.

"As you saw, Marissa is trained to handle people who are potential security threats. She is an agent like the rest of us, she just doesn't really go out in the field. Come on, we'll show you the rest of the place."

The agents followed the other two down the hallway they had come from and towards an elevator. They all crowded on and Mac pushed one of the many buttons on the panel.

"There can't be that many floors. There was only, like, four!" Morgan exclaimed at the sight of the button panel.

"We only have four above ground floors, but we have many more sub-floors," Mac answered. The elevator stopped its downward descent and the door opened with a ding.

"Here we are on my favorite floor. This is the home of all of our labs where we do anything you can imagine," he said stepping out.

"Yeah, it's basically geek central," Jack said with a grin. Mac shot him a look, "I thought you said this whole place was geek central?" he asked the elder man who nodded and kept walking.

The other agents just gazed around in amazements. They had already passed a handful of glass-clad laboratories where scientists were deeply engrossed in all sort of projects. The amount of technology in the labs was almost overwhelming the investigative team. The group stopped in front of a particular lab.

Mac turned towards them, "This is Bozer's lab. I also spend a lot of my free time down here, but we'll grab him and head back above ground." They all went in and Mac snagged a white lab coat off of a hook by the door. The other agents once again gazed around, awestruck. The lab was covered in amazing tech and all kinds of experiments. Off to one side, Bozer sat with his back to the door, headphones on, and bobbing to the music. As they approached, they could tell that he wore a matching lab coat to MacGyver.

The BAU agents gazed at what h was working on and were amazed. He was using little metal tools to put intricate details into what looked like a real human face. Jack walked over to him, grabbed both of his earphones, and yelled "Bozer!" in his ear. The young man nearly fell off his stool in response.

"What is wrong with you, Jack!" he exclaimed.

Jack crossed his arms over his chest and looked at him. "What have I told you about listening to music when you're all alone down here? Someone could have walked in here and snuck up on ya just like I did. You're just lucky it was me and wasn't some crazy person with a knife."

Bozer looked ashamed but didn't respond. "I recall Jack telling you that on six different accounts, Bozer," an artificial voice said from a few feet away. Everyone but Mac and Bozer jumped at the sound. They all turned to face Sparky, who was sitting in a chair a few feet away.

"Ah man, you didn't tell me that freaky bot was gonna be down here," Jack whined at MacGyver.

"Where else did you think he would be, Jack?" Bozer asked. Jack looked very uncomfortable and took a visible step back.

The other six people in the room looked extremely curious at the sight of Sparky. Reid approached the android and touched it lightly. "This is some amazing AI," he commented, "What can it do?"

"Well, first of all, it's a he, he's very finnicky about being called an "it'. His name's Sparky and he helps us out down here in the lab. He's programmed to do virtually anything, and he speaks most languages. Isn't that right, Sparky?" Mac asked the robot. Mechanically, the robot turned his head to look at the group, gears and wires clicking as he did so.

"That is correct, Master MacGyver, I am programmed with the latest technology. I am also fluent in over one thousand languages."

"So, he's Google Translate on legs?" Morgan asked skeptically.

"Sure, if Google Translate was in the form of a six-million-dollar piece of AI," Bozer said, cleaning up his station and packaging up the mask he had been working on. He placed it in one of the many refrigerant chambers to harden overnight.

"Six-million-dollars!" all six agents gasped.

"Hold up, why did he call him "Master MacGyver" but you two didn't get a master in front of your names?" Emily asked.

"I built him," Mac said simply.

"You built him!" Rossi exclaimed in awe.

Mac nodded. "We are disguised as a think tank, so we have to produce some scientific research sometimes. My cover is that I am an engineer here, so I've been studying AI lately."

"Yeah and I keep tellin' him that he's gonna be the first to go when the robots take over," Jack grunted, still keeping a safe distance away from the robot. Everyone in the room chuckled at the big Delta's obvious fear of robots.

"Come on, Boz, we were just heading up to the War Room," Mac said. They all moved out of the room and packed back into the elevator. When it opened with another ding a few floors later, they all stepped out and Mac lead the way down another hallway. The group passed lots of IT rooms where techs were furiously typing at their keyboards. The people from the BAU still were gawking at everything they passed until they reached the end of the hallway. They entered the glass room where there were multiple brown chairs, a coffee table with a bowl of paperclips on top, and a giant screen at the front. Two people occupied the room.

"Welcome to the War Room," Bozer said extravagantly, "This is where we hold all of our meetings, mission central assistance, and debriefings."

"I'm Director Matilda Webber," Matty said shaking Hotch's hand, "Welcome to the Phoenix, Agent Hotchner. I hope that we can work together to finally capture the man who did this."

"As do I. It is good to meet you to Director," Hotch said formally.

"What are ya doin', Ri?" Jack asked the young woman who hadn't even said a word since they entered the War Room. She was working very hard on her rig, absorbed in whatever she was doing.

"I'm trying to update our security programming. Someone got through the first layer earlier on today and now I've been trying to update our entire system," she said tiredly.

"Sorry about that. That would be our fault. We had our tech analyst do some research on all of you and I'm afraid that she had to go through your system to do so. I promise that she did absolutely nothing to your system, though," Hotch apologized.

"That's a relief. Just don't it again. But for the record, we ran backgrounds on all of you too. I guess it's a paranoid government agent thing," Matty said. Just then MacGyver's phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and declined the call upon seeing that the caller ID was from an unknown number.

Suddenly, the screen at the front of the room went haywire. Static flitted across the screen. "What's going on, Riley?" Matty asked urgently.

"Someone's trying to get through our network. I had to temporarily disable it in order to put in the new programming, but now someone's using it to their advantage," Riley said quickly.

"Can you get them out?" Matty demanded.

"I'm working on counter-attack measures as we speak, but the weakened program is making it difficult!" she exclaimed. Her voice slowly rising.

The static in the front of the room stopped all at once. "I'm locked out of our system!" Riley exclaimed. With a flash of light, a message popped up on the large screen.

_Didn't you ever here that it's rude to not answer your phone, MacGyver? -M_

The five Phoenix agents stared at the screen with fear.

"Who the heck is M!?" Morgan asked. The agents exchanged a look.

"Let me tell you about Murdoc…" Matty began.

**There's the third chapter for all of you. Sorry to leave you on a bit of a cliffhanger, but I just couldn't resist. I really hope you like it. Please review!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4! So, as you can all tell, I've had a lot of extra time recently to write and I will continue to post as much as possible until that period of time ends. Not that I'm complaining, but I'm getting concerned about the health of my fingers. Is it possible for them to fall off from typing too much? ;) I probably will not be using labels in the chapters anymore since the two groups have now met. Anyway, here it is!**

"So, this Murdoc guy is a psychopath hit man who you guys have been chasing down for over a year now?" Morgan asked trying to understand Matty's description of Murdoc.

"And you guys have absolutely no idea what his real name is?" J.J clarified. Matty shook her head, "We only really know a few things about him. First, he's had so many aliases that I doubt he even knows his own name anymore. Next, he had a son name Cassian with a woman he was supposed to kill. Long story short, she had the kid and then he killed her."

"If he has a son, he has to have some empathy in him. Has he ever displayed any unordinary emotions in front of you?" Hotch asked.

"Trust me when I tell you that this guy is the worst of them. He's very good at what he does, as you saw. He never has a demeanor other than this annoying, calm, confidence around him," Matty answered.

"So, he's confident in what he does. You also said that he's a psychopath, so he probably displays these traits in other aspects of his life," Emily said writing down notes, "He probably acts as if he knows more than others and feels comfortable in showing it."

"He who knows all the answers has not been asked all the questions," Reid quoted.

Mac turned to look at him, "Confucius; meaning if you think you know all of the answers you have not been asked all of the questions in the world. We are always evolving and learning therefore there is always something that you do not know." The two young men stared at each other for a moment before turning away.

"Great there's two of them," Jack and Morgan muttered at the exact same time. There eyes met and the simultaneously chuckled.

"If you two are done, we've got an unstable hit man running lose," Matty growled to which both men immediately shut up. She went on, "In this case, yes, Murdoc often does give off an air that he knows something we don't."

"It's most likely his way of intimidation," Rossi concluded, "Has he ever shown any interest in anything? Has he ever made demands from you guys?"

Matty contemplated this, "There is one thing that Murdoc is always interested in."

"What is it?" J.J asked.

"Mac," Matty said, "Murdoc has this creepy obsession with him. It's almost to the point where it's sadistic. The whole reason we began hunting him down is because he showed up at Mac's house after he was hired to kill him. We were forced to hire Bozer because Murdoc exposed what we really do here at the Phoenix."

Mac nodded, "It's true. About six months ago, we had Murdoc in custody. Jack and I were bringing him back to the Phoenix when we realized that his old mentor, Helman, was also fallowing us. I was setting up a trap for Helman when he apparently came up behind me and was about to shoot me. I didn't see him though; I only saw Murdoc who was also pointing a gun at me. Murdoc "saved my life" by shooting a bullet through my shoulder which then killed Helman behind me."

"Wait, did you say this guy saved your life?" Emily asked in amazement.

"Sure, he did. That was four months after he kidnapped Mac out of his house, drugged him, and tortured him in an underground room," Jack added.

"So, this guy enjoys inflicting pain on you, but also feels empathy or at least a strong need to protect Mac," Rossi said speaking to Mac.

"This is exactly why we want to work with you guys. With our knowledge, your psychological reasoning, and our combined field experience, we may be abled to finally convict Murdoc for good," Matty explained.

"Don't forget that the whole reason we're here is to figure out the case of Robert Jarar," Morgan put in.

"We already know who did it, we just now have to lock him up," Bozer said.

"I think that we need to look back on to the car crash a year ago. Robert's parents were already deceased but the girlfriend who was killed in the crash's parents are still alive. I think that we need to go talk to them," Reid said.

"I agree. Morgan and I will head over and talk to the parents," said at the exact same time that Matty said, "Mac and Jack can go and talk to the parents."

Everyone but Matty and Hotch froze. Each group of agents knew how commanding their executive agents could be. Each hated their authority being challenged and bow it seemed that things were about to come to blows. You could literally feel the tension filling the room as Hotch gave his famous stare to Matty. She returned it with her own, just as menacing.

"My team is trained to look for tells when talking to families of victims. No one is innocent until we prove that they are," Hotch said taking a step forward.

"My agents are highly trained operatives who have conducted mission, and succeeded I might add, that even the highest of the government hierarchy couldn't handle," Matty replied, matching Hotch's step forward.

Everyone held their breath as the tension rose. Morgan leaned into the other agents and whispered, "Who do we listen to?"

"Me," both Matty and Hotch snapped.

"We're taking bets now. Who's gonna win: ex-SWAT or ex-CIA?" Jack asked playfully.

"Stop talking!" Matty hissed at Jack.

"Morgan and I will go talk to the parents," Hotch demanded again.

"No, Mac and Jack will," Matty said adamantly.

Emily spoke up, "We take orders from Hotch. Whatever he says, we do it."

"Well we take orders from Matty only," Jack said coming to Matty's defense.

"Hey, hey, why don't we compromise?" Mac said stepping between the two directors, "All four of us will go and talk to the girlfriend's parents. That way, we have both experience from the BAU and the Phoenix Foundation."

Matty nodded in agreement, "That will work for now. Eventually, we will have to sort out who's heading this, but for now, we need to figure out the case."

"Yes, but we will have to discuss this later," Hotch agreed.

"Bozer, why don't you take Jareau, Reid, Rossi, and Prentiss down to the file rooms and let them take a look at Murdoc's old files. Maybe they'll be able to find something that we didn't," Matty commanded.

"Why don't we get Davis set up with our tech analyst, Garcia, and see what they can dig up?" Hotch offered, trying to work with Matty to make the best use of their combined agents.

"Okay everyone, get moving!" Matty barked.

Bozer hustled the four BAU agents out of the room as Riley sat down and began to make the connection with Garcia. Matty kept her face towards the front screen as the other group of agents left the room headed for the parking garage.

Once on the road, the car was filled with awkward silence. Jack was driving, Mac was in the passenger seat, and Morgan and Hotch were in the back. Mac was the only one doing something in an attempt to distract himself from the silence. As usual, he was meticulously bending a paperclip into almost a carbon copy of the handgun in Jack's holster.

"Do you think that the parents have anything to do with this? Their daughter being killed in a car crash could certainly be the right MO for the parents to hire someone to kill the man they thought responsible," Morgan reasoned.

"I think that it's a real possibility," Hotch answered.

"What are their names?" Jack asked.

"Edith and Peter Swanson. The daughter's name was Julia Swanson," Mac answered as if he was reciting it from a file, which he probably was. He didn't even look up from his paperclip when he responded.

"What are you doing?" Morgan asked noticing the paperclip for the first time.

"Oh this?" Mac asked gesturing to the paperclip, "It's nothing. I've been shaping paperclips since I was a kid. I've never been able to keep my hands still and this gives me something to do and helps me focus. I still always carry some with me, you never know when one might come in handy."

"Okay?" Morgan answered almost as if he were asking a question. He glanced at Hotch who shrugged in response.

"Don't worry, you'll get used to it. It took me a while too when we met in the Sandbox, but he's not all that weird," Jack said with a chuckle.

"The Sandbox?" Hotch asked.

"Yeah, it's what a lot of us back in the Army used to call Afghanistan. Just something to try and lighten up the mood in a warzone," Mac said. Hotch nodded in understanding.

Morgan gave a chuckle of his own and responded to Jack's previous warning about Mac, "Don't worry. I've got to deal with Reid on a daily basis. I'm pretty used to all the weirdness."

"You got one too?" Jack asked playfully.

"Yep," Morgan responded, "Mine's 28. How old's yours?"

"25," Jack answered playing along.

"Oh, okay, let's all talk about me like I'm not in the car," Mac grumbled. Jack playfully punched him on the shoulder, "Calm down, kid." Mac finished his paperclip art and once again held it up for the occupants of the car to see.

"That's amazing," Morgan complimented, "It looks a lot like my gun."

"It is. Yours is a Glock 22 pistol, right?" Mac confirmed, to which Morgan nodded.

"You're very observative. You would do well on the BAU," Hotch commented. It didn't go unnoticed by the two BAU agents that Jack's hand visibly tightened on the steering wheel at this comment. Mac didn't miss it either, because he said, "Thanks, but I prefer dealing with international threats over bodies." Jack immediately relaxed.

He pulled into the driveway of a house. It was a large house in a ritzy neighborhood surrounded by a manicured lawn and complete with a swimming pool in the side yard. The four agents got out of the car and walked up to the front door. Hotch rang the doorbell.

A woman in her mid-fifties answered the door. She had light blond haired tied up in a tight knot on the top of her head. She wore a neat blouse and skirt. She also wore a lot of expensive looking jewelry, a large diamond wedding ring topping it all off.

"How can I help you?" she asked, keeping the door half closed.

Hotch pulled out his badge and Morgan did the same, "Edith Swanson, we're from the FBI and the Phoenix Foundation. I'm Agent Hotchner, and this is Agent Morgan, Agent Dalton, and Agent MacGyver. Can we come in?"

"Of course," she said opening the door the rest of the way. The inside of the house was just as expensive as the outside. The woman led the agents into a large living room with huge floor-to-ceiling windows. A man in his late fifties was sitting on the couch watching a football game.

"Peter, these men are from the FBI and another agency called the Phoenix. They want to talk to us. This is Agent Hotchner, Agent Morgan, Agent Dalton, and, Agent MacGyver," she said gesturing to each agent.

"Sure," he said turning the TV off, "Take a seat." The agents all sat down across from the couple and watched them intently for a moment.

"So, Mr. and Mrs. Swanson, we want to talk to you about your daughter," Hotch started.

"Julia?" Edith whispered, "Didn't your people already talk enough to us about this?"

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but those were local police. We just want to ask you a few more questions," Morgan explained.

"Why now? It's been almost a year since it…it happened," Peter asked.

"Your daughter's boyfriend, Robert Jarar, was murdered a few days ago," Hotch said bluntly.

"Did you ever believe that Robert was driving under the influence when the accident occurred?" Mac asked.

Peter nodded, "We did. Actually, we still do. The investigators said that he wasn't, but he was really heavy into alcohol. We tried to convince Julia to leave him on multiple occasions, but she claimed that she loved him. We knew…we knew that he was no good."

"So, you didn't approve of him?" Hotch confirmed.

Edith shook her head, "No we didn't. When they first got together, he was an absolute charmer. He was the perfect gentleman, I mean he had straight As, was the captain of the college debate team. He constantly was bringing me and Julia gifts. We were all charmed by him; she thought he was one. But as time went on, he started hanging out with the wrong people. We were afraid that Julia was going to get roped into it, so we tried to stop her. It didn't work," she finished quietly.

"Wait, did you say that he got in with the wrong people? Was he, like, a gangbanger or somethin'?" Jack asked.

"We suspected. His friends weren't exactly the nicest kids. They were into drugs and alcohol as much as him, if not worse, and they were constantly getting into trouble. Some of them even got arrested, not for terrible things, but trespassing and DUIs. That's actually why we think that he was intoxicated," Edith said.

Before the agents could ask anymore questions, Peter jumped in, "If you'll excuse me, I need to use the restroom." He got up off of the couch and went up the staircase.

"She was such a sweet girl," Edith murmured, tears in her eyes, "We loved her so much."

"I'm sorry for your loss, Mrs. Swanson. Thank you for answering our questions, but I believe that's all we need. We'll be going now," Hotch said standing up. Everyone else followed his example as they made their way towards the door.

Suddenly, a series of shots sounded through the house. One of the bullets shattered a window right behind the agents. Morgan, Hotch and Jack immediately drew their guns and looked for the source of the bullets.

Another series of bullets rang out as Peter became visible at the top of the stairs. He was holding a sniper rifle and shooting right at the four agents. The three with guns returned fire as they made a run for cover. Jack grabbed Mac and shoved him behind the couch, out of the line of fire. Edith stood over against the wall, horrified, but doing nothing to stop her husband. The other three ducked behind the couch, joining Mac.

The onslaught continued as the three agents returned fire. Hotch let out a grunt as he slid back down from taking a shot. Blood stained his upper arm as he pressed his hand to it.

"Hotch, you okay?" Morgan asked urgently.

"I'll be fine. It's just a graze," he answered through his teeth.

"Peter stop!" Edith cried. She gestured for her husband to come down the stairs. Slowly, he lowered the gun on to the ground.

"That's it nice and slow. Come down the stairs hands in the air where we can see them," Jack commanded keeping his gun trained on the man coming down the stairs. When Peter got to the bottom, Jack and Morgan lowered their guns and rushed out from their spot to apprehend the two. But as soon as they moved, Peter took off out the back door and his wife followed him. Jack and Morgan didn't even have time to draw their guns before the pair was out the door.

Morgan glanced back at Hotch, "Hotch, are you okay for us to go after them?"

Hotch nodded, "Go. Don't let them get away."

"Kid, you okay?" Jack asked Mac.

"I'm fine, Jack. Go get them before they get away. I'll stay with Agent Hotchner," he replied.

Morgan and Jack took off out the door the couple had gone, Jack saying, "Man, for two people in their fifties, these guys run fast."

Mac knelt beside Hotch and took off his belt, "I have to stop the bleeding. You're right, it's just a graze and not a very deep one, but it still isn't good for it to be bleeding. Sorry, this is going to hurt a bit." Mac wrapped the belt above the graze, but Hotch only grimaced the slightest bit.

He studied the blond boy, "If we're going to be working together, don't call me Agent Hotchner all the time. My friends call me Hotch like yours call you Mac."

Mac smiled, "Okay Hotch, I don't think that this is going to even need stitches. Phoenix med will probably just wrap it up and send you on your way."

"It's really not necessary for me to go to medical," Hotch tried.

"Trust me, I know how you feel. I hate going to medical, but Matty is going to make you if you want to work this case. She doesn't take any risks when it comes her agent's health," Mac said.

"She seems quite…demanding," he said.

"Oh, she is, but she's really great when you get to know her. Jack calls her "Matty the Hun"," Mac explained.

"Speaking of Jack, why did he push you behind the couch during the fight? You didn't draw a gun either. Do you not carry one?" Hotch asked.

"Jack's overprotective and as for the gun thing, no I don't carry one. I don't like guns. I prefer to solve problems nonlethally rather than just shooting someone," Mac told him. Hotch nodded.

"You realize what this means, right?" Hotch asked.

"These people have something to hide. They're probably in league with Murdoc," Mac answered.

**There's the end of Chapter 4! I was really happy with the interactions between Hotch and Matty and Morgan and Jack. I'm sorry if Hotch was a little OC, but he is really hard to get the personality right! I promise that there will be more interactions between the other characters later on, especially Reid and Mac. Don't forget to leave a review and check out my MacGyver story "Safe and Sound" which I will be updating next. Bye!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Okay, we're just flying along with this story. I'm actually really surprised how much updating I'm getting done. Thanks to everyone who has left a review on this story or "Safe and Sound". I really appreciate it! Here's what I got this time.**

**Phoenix File Room**

Bozer sighed as he put yet another stack of files down on the circular table in the middle of the Phoenix filing room. They already had enough for all five of them to be busy for days and they had been working on files for almost an hour now.

"Is this all of them?" J.J asked completely overwhelmed. Bozer had given them more files than what was on her desk back at Quantico and that was saying something. Apparently, these were only the case files on Murdoc, but this huge archive had thousands upon thousands more files on hundreds of other missions and cases.

"These are the ones we know of. These aren't just the one's our team has worked, but the files from every op ever worked on Murdoc here," Bozer explained, "You have to remember too that these are just the ones we know of. Matty's almost certain that there is a lot more hits he's done over his career that we don't know of."

"Where do we start?" Rossi asked eyeing the stacks of files warily.

"I don't know. The last time we saw him was a few months ago. The file should be here somewhere…" Bozer trailed off as he rifled through the mountains of papers, "Here it is." He moved some of the other files out of the way and threw the one in his hand down in the middle of the table. Rossi grabbed it and began flipping through it.

"This is one heck of an after-duty report. This thing has everything from geographical maps to medical reports," Rossi said in amazement. He put the file back down so that everyone else could see.

"This was the one where Mac got shot?" J.J asked Bozer eyeing the medical reports.

"Yep. Jack got him in custody and everything afterwards, but he made requests for "saving Mac's life". He wanted to see his son, but when we consented, he ran way with the kid," Bozer explained.

"How did he get away? Weren't there multiple guards posted by the door in case of that happening?" Reid asked.

"Yeah there were, but Murdoc took a blade from Cassian's crayon sharpener and used it to stab the guard to death," Bozer answered grimly. All of the agent's eyes widened in disbelief.

"So, just to clarify, we're dealing with a psychologically unstable hit-man who has a track record of torturing his victims _and _can kill someone with a crayon sharpener blade?" Emily asked incredulously.

"That about sums Murdoc up all except you left out the part about him being a professional sadistic whack job," Bozer answered nervously.

"Okay, well obviously we know that this guy has some serious problems. Do we have any idea what could have caused him to become the way he is? It would have been something gruesome from his childhood, something that could cause this kind of behavior," Rossi asked. Everyone began grabbing files and sifting through them.

"There was this one thing that Mac put in his personal post-op report that might explain that," Bozer said suddenly after a minute, "Let me go find it." He got up from the table and disappeared around a corner of filing cabinets. The four agents left continued their search until Bozer came back, file in hand, about ten minutes later.

"This is Mac's post-op report for that particular op. I don't know how you guys do it in the FBI, but we all have to write a report after every op," Bozer told them.

"We do something like that too," Emily answered taking the file from his hands. She handed it to Reid, "Here, work your magic, Doctor."

Reid opened the file and his finger immediately began to fly down the pages. Bozer stared in amazement at him. "Do you actually read that fast?" he asked.

"I can read 20,000 words per minute," he answered without looking up. Bozer whistled, "Man, it is so weird to have another genius around this place. I've gotten pretty used to Mac over the years, but he's still amazing even when you grow up with him."

"Can I ask you a question?" Rossi asked Bozer, taking the minute or two it would take Reid to finish the file to ask Bozer a question he had been wondering for a while now.

"Shoot," Bozer responded and then eyed the pistol on Rossi's hip, "Actually, bad choice of words, but ask away."

The older agent chuckled, but continued, "Was Mac always like this? Could he make stuff like he does now when he was a kid?"

Bozer nodded enthusiastically, "Oh yeah. He's always been like he is. When we were kids, he made all kinds of stuff. I've seen him fix a bicycle chain with a handful of paperclips and start a nuclear reaction with middle school science equipment."

Rossi was about to respond when Reid set the file back down on the table. Everyone looked at him expectantly. "I believe I found what you were talking about. It states in here that Murdoc made a comment saying that it was better that some fathers left. He apparently said that he has quote "daddy issues" and that he wasn't going to tell them all of the gory details."

"That sounds like past child abuse to me. That's definitely a common trigger for the Unsubs we meet to start killing," J.J said.

"But why Mac? That's the main question. What makes him Murdoc's target over say Jack or Bozer or anyone else in the world? Once we figure that out, we should be able to make a solid profile for him and find his location," Emily wondered.

"Trust me, we've been asking that same question since the day that nutjob was hired to kill Mac. We've never been able to answer it, though," Bozer said with a frustrated tone.

"That's our job. Now, let's list off some stuff that makes Mac different from other people or similar to Murdoc," Rossi said.

"He's a genius," J.J offered. "That's pretty rare, right?" she asked Reid he nodded in response.

"Between 18 and 19 million people in the world are geniuses. This may seem like a lot, but when you compare it to the entire population, geniuses barely make up 2.2% of the total," Reid supplied.

"Genius, got it," Emily said, scribbling on a notepad, "What else?"

"Neither him or Murdoc had good relationships with their parents," Rossi added, and Emily wrote more down on her notepad.

"But," Reid said, "While Murdoc seems to have been abused by one or both of his parents, Mac doesn't display any signs of childhood abuse. That could possibly trigger some sort of jealous reaction inside of Murdoc. While him and Mac both had hard childhoods, he got beat while Mac never did."

"Reid's right. Is there anything else?" Emily asked, her pen hovering above her pad.

"Mac uses some pretty unorthodox methods on getting out of situations. He's the master of improvising," Bozer said, "He's also the only one of Murdoc's targets to ever outsmart him and get away."

They all looked at him. "Why didn't you say that earlier!? Emily cried, "That's probably the key to all of this."

Bozer had the good sense to look ashamed, but he didn't respond to Emily's question. "You guys already had a pretty good profile on this guy, but I think we just figured out why he targets Mac. It's almost like a game for him. Mac thwarted his efforts to assassinate him, so Murdoc took that as a challenge to take out the one hit that got away," J.J explained.

Bozer's phone began to ring. He pulled it out and put it on speaker, "Matty you're on speaker," he said as a greeting.

"Bozer, they're back, but we got an injury," she started, but everyone jumped in, with "Who was it?" and "How bad?" and "What happened?".

"Calm down, agents," Matty commanded, "It's Agent Hotchner. It's not at all serious; he just has a very light bullet graze on his upper bicep. He's already back from medical and we are all waiting for the rest of you to get up here to talk about what happened and start interrogations."

"Alright Matty, see you when we get up there," Bozer said before ending the call. The four agents looked very relieved that their executive officer's injury was minor. They all started to collect files, but Bozer stopped them. "Just leave them here. I'll make Jack come down here later on and help me put them away. He just loves doing it so much," Bozer said with the right amount of mischief and sarcasm leaking into his voice.

The other agents laughed as they all headed out of the room and towards the elevator.

**War Room**

The five agents walked into the room and saw everyone was already there. Hotch had abandoned his suit jacket because of the assumed rip from the bullet on his sleeve. Matty was pacing along the front of the room while Mac, Jack, and Morgan waited quietly.

"Hotch are you okay?" Emily asked immediately.

"I'm fine," he answered tersely, "We need to discuss what happened and what you guys found."

They all then proceeded to tell what happened at the Swanson house and how Morgan and Jack had apprehended the couple. In turn, the five other agents explained what they had come up with in the file room.

"Now that we have all of that figured out, we need to find Murdoc. The best way for us to do that is to interrogate the couple," Matty said.

"I think we need to mix the groups up here in order to get anything accomplished. Reid, Mac, you two can take care of Mrs. Swanson. She seems to be considerably more docile than her husband. Director Webber and I can take care of the husband's interrogation," Hotch commanded. He looked over at Matty who met his gaze. It seems that the pair had come to an agreement at some point that they would share the leading when it came to this particular case.

"You're gonna send the two geniuses in together? Scary move, just warnin' ya," Jack smirked at Hotch who just met him with a humorless stare. Morgan leaned over to Jack, "You get used to the lack of humor eventually."

"Bozer, go check on Riley and Garcia. Afterwards, come down to the interrogation rooms. The rest of you, come down with us and watch for anything that seems out of place," Matty went on as if Jack and Morgan hadn't made a comment.

The group broke off to go to their assigned area. Reid and Mac left first. This left the pair to stand awkwardly together in the elevator as it made its descent towards the interrogation rooms.

"Do you ever get tired of it?" Reid asked quietly.

"What?" Mac asked in confusion.

"Do you ever get tired of everyone relying on your intelligence and expecting you to know all of the answers?" Reid clarified.

Mac took a moment to think about it, "Sometimes. I don't mind knowing the answers and being able to help people because of it, but it does get tiring sometimes. I don't know about you, but the names are the most annoying thing about it all."

"They give you nicknames too?" Reid asked in amazement, "Some people on my team have nicknames for me, but I don't really like them. Morgan mostly calls me Kid and Pretty Boy. Garcia especially, but the rest of the team too, calls me Doc and Genius. I definitely know what you mean about nick names."

Mac sighed, "I have so many more than that. Jack calls me Kid or Brother or Hoss or if it 's really bad, Carl's Jr. Matty generally calls me Boy Genius, Blondie, and Baby Einstein."

"I understand. It doesn't help when you are the youngest one on the team too. Before we came here, I used to easily be the smartest person in any room, but now, it's kind of nice to have someone who understands," Reid said smiling gently.

"I hear you," Mac said. Just then the elevator doors opened up and Mac led Reid down the hallway to a room with a door and a one-sided window. Mac nodded to the guard who opened the door to let the pair in.

Once inside, the room looked like any other interrogation room. There was a table in the middle of the room where Edith Swanson sat handcuffed to the bar in the middle of the table. Two chairs were placed on the other side and the two took their seats. Mrs. Swanson looked up at them with tears in her eyes.

"I-I'm so sorry for Peter. Is that agent alright, the one who Peter s-shot?" she asked in a wobbly voice.

"He's alright. He didn't even need stitches," Mac said gently. She nodded with relief, but tears continued to well up in her eyes.

"Ma'am," Reid said quietly, "You do know that your husband is being charged with assaulting a government agent along with other things. If you tell us why he did what he did, it may not be too bad for you."

She nodded, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. We didn't mean for any of this to happen. We told you back at the house that we suspected for a long time that Robert was drunk when the car accident happened. We were both very angry and upset about it, but Peter insisted that we do something if the police weren't going to. I n-never knew that Peter could do what he did…"

"Did he do something besides what happened at your house?" Mac asked.

She gazed at the two agents in front of her, "You two don't look much older than our Julia. As parents, you would do anything for your child, even if they're…they're no longer here. Peter was so angry with Robert and the fact that he lived while Julia didn't, he wanted him to…to…"

"Did Peter want him dead?" Reid asked and Edith nodded.

"Peter knew some guys and eventually he hired a man who went by Murdoc, to kill Robert," Edith finished quietly.

"Why did Peter start shooting at us when we came to your house?" Mac asked.

"Murdoc warned us that government agents would likely show up to talk to us and he said that we needed to take you guys out when you did," Edith explained.

"Do you have any idea where Murdoc is now?" Reid asked.

"He said that if a blond agent named MacGyver came, which he most likely would, to tell him that he could be found at warehouse number three downtown," she told them. The two agents exchanged looks and they stood up.

"Thank you, Mrs. Swanson, I think that is all we're going to need," Reid said as the two agents made their way towards the door.

"Be careful," Mrs. Swanson called to them as they left the room.

Outside, everyone else was waiting for them. "Did Mr. Swanson cooperate?" Mac asked Matty.

She shook her head, "He wouldn't admit to anything. Thank God Mrs. Swanson did, or we wouldn't have anything to put against them. We even have a lead on Murdoc's location now. Jack show everyone down to the TAC room so they can get suited up to head down to the warehouse."

Suddenly, a very flustered Riley came flying into the room carrying a laptop with the face of Garcia displayed on it. The minute Garcia saw them she said, "Okay, so Riley and I were working together, she's great by the way, but a message came across both of our screens. It said _Forget about the warehouse. Tell Angus to and the rest of the new team to meet me where this started where all of the old cars are. Come as you normally would, so no knew stuff. -M_"

"It's another message from Murdoc," Riley explained, "I think it's talking about the scrapyard where Murdoc shot Thornton."

"That sounds right," Mac confirmed.

"Alright everyone, it's been a long day. The BAU agents can head back to their hotel, get something to eat, and get some rest. You guys can head to the scrapyard tomorrow," Matty said.

"But we have to go now. He could be gone by tomorrow," Rossi insisted.

"He'll be there," Mac assured them.

**And there's the end of chapter 5. Please don't forget to leave a review. I asked a question on my other story asking if you guys wanted to have the BAU see Jack reacting to Mac's pain or if they should all suffer together. I have decided on the first one, and you will find out what I mean in the chapters to come! See ya!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Here is chapter 6! I had a really good idea for this story, so I decided to get it written down while it was still fresh in my mind. This chapter will switch between everyone's viewpoints except Matty's, Bozer's, and Rossi's. This is because Matty's POV wouldn't really add anything to the story, Bozer will be with Riley and I am doing hers, so they will experience the same thing, and I am not all that familiar with Rossi's character. It will remain in third person, but it will still be their points of views. Anyway, here's the next chapter without further ado.**

Everyone arrived back at the Phoenix early the next morning. They had once again all gathered in the War Room and waiting for Matty and Hotch's instructions. Riley passed ear coms out to everyone as Matty said, "Keep these in at all times. I want to be able to hear everything that goes on, so under no circumstances are you to go dark. Riley has already set up a live video feed for me, so I will hopefully be able to also see everything that goes on. Jack is going to take everyone down to the TAC room to get suited up. Riley, Bozer, you will also be going. Riley needs to set up her equipment to keep my feed going and I would just like Bozer to go. Get going."

Jack led the group down to the TAC room. "Everyone grab a vest," Jack said, taking one for himself, "Not only is it a military grade TAC vest, but of course, it's also Kevlar. Keep the piece ya already got on your side holster but grab an extra one from the weapon's vault and put it in the backup holster on the front of the vest. The vest also has multiple slots for extra clips of lead. This guy's no joke. He's good and it doesn't hurt to be overprepared."

The BAU agents obeyed Jack. They all began to make their way into their vests, grabbing extra pistols, and extra clips of ammo. Mac, Bozer, and Riley just stood off to the side awkwardly. Jack grabbed three pistols out of the vault and made his way over to the trio.

He held the guns out. "I know you guys don't usually carry guns, but it would make me feel better if you had somethin' to protect yourselves with. I'm not gonna be able to watch out for you the whole time, so you need to be prepared." The three were about to protest but Jack held up his hand in a no-nonsense type of fashion. "I know what ya'll are gonna say. I know that you can take care of yourselves, believe me I've seen it, but this is Murdoc we're talking about. He's good, almost better than me, and I can't have any of your deaths on my conscience. It would kill me guys."

Everyone stopped their preparations to look at the group. They all exchanged look when Jack made his last statement. They hadn't been working together for long, but they weren't profilers for just any reason. They could all tell that the Phoenix team was like a family, and Jack was like a protective father. He cared very deeply for all of them and they all believed that losing one of them would quite literally kill him.

None of them made any move to take a gun. "I get what you're saying, Jack, but the message that Murdoc left said for us to come like we normally would. Bozer, Riley, and I would usually come unarmed and with no vest. If we don't listen to the message, we could be putting this whole operation at risk," Mac said firmly.

"Mac has a point," Riley said and Bozer nodded his head in agreement. Jack grumbled something about stubborn genius kids and place the guns back in the vault. "Fine," he growled, "But if any of you die, I' m gonna bring you back to life just so I can kill ya myself." It was meant to be a threatening statement, but everyone knew that the emotion behind those words was anything but anger.

"Alright guys, once you're all suited up, go ahead and head down to the parking garage. There are two Phoenix vehicles waiting for you," Matty's voice broke through the coms in their ears. Glancing around to make sure that everyone was ready to go, Jack lead his new team out to the parking garage where they loaded into the two armored vehicles and drove away.

**J.J**

The vehicles pulled up to the scrapyard and everyone got out. All ten agents gathered in a circle and listened for Matty's instructions.

"Riley and Bozer need to find a place to set up. The rest of you need to split and start searching for Murdoc. Stay on high alert, especially Mac, Bozer, and Riley since they're unarmed, we don't know where he is. I want him alive. If and only if someone is in life-threatening danger will you make a fatal shot. Even then, try and make it non-lethal if at all possible. Stay on the line and be careful," Matty drilled from the other end of the coms.

"You do know that splitting up is the last thing that happens in any horror movie before everyone gets killed, right?" Jack asked trying to lighten the mood, but everyone could tell that there was a hint of nervousness underneath of the joke.

"I'm not sure that a killer in a horror movie would be interested in a Texan in his mid-forties, Jack. Now do what I said!" Matty hissed.

"Alright everyone, Bozer and Riley are going to go find somewhere to set up the equipment. The rest of us need to go different directions. It's risky, but we'll cover more ground that way," Hotch explained. Everyone nodded somberly. "Be careful," Hotch said in a monotone that was depressing even for him.

As the group split, J.J made her way down a narrow path between a wrecked pickup and a pile of old machine parts off to the right. She had her gun raised and of course the vest, but her nerves were standing on end. The BAU had never dealt with this guy before, but from the files and what the Phoenix team said about him, he scared her. Being the youngest girl on the team, it wasn't often that she admitted when something scared her, but this guy definitely did.

Off to her side, an old hubcap slid off of a pile of scrap metal and hit the dirt with a deafening clang in the quiet yard. She whipped to the side, gun poised to shoot, as more metal shifted as if something, or someone, was moving them.

"FBI, show yourself!" she commanded. When nothing happened, she repeated her command.

With another shift of metal, a skinny orange tabby jumped out from behind the pile of rubble. J.J sighed. She was definitely jumpy already, but it didn't help that this whole stupid encounter had started the adrenaline pumping through her body. She gave one more look towards the pile and kept walking.

**Riley**

Riley tried to ignore Bozer's nervous whispers about how Murdoc was going to jump out and kill them at any moment. Not that she wasn't thinking that too, but she had other technical things to worry about. She was starting to get worried about the fact that she hadn't heard from Matty or anyone else since they split. They came across a rusty little car out in an open area of the compound and Riley decided to set her rig up there.

She set the laptop down and began to type away. She immediately went to check the com connections and the video feed that she had set up for Matty and found that both were offline. She cursed to herself and tried to restore the connection but found that something was keeping her dangerously locked out.

She interrupted another one of Bozer's nervous rants with a frustrated growl of, "Not now! Why can't any plans ever go the way we want them to?"

He stopped mid-sentence to look at her with a panicked expression. "What's wrong? What do you mean something isn't going the way we wanted it to?"

"We have no com or video service. Matty can't communicate with us and we can't communicate with each other!" she exclaimed as an explanation.

"Are you telling me that we're in the middle of an old scrapyard, with a psychopath killer on the loose, and we can't even communicate with each other or get any intel from Matty?" his voice was rising with fear as he spoke, "If we can't talk to each other, then we won't know if Murdoc is still on the lose or if anyone is hurt or anything!"

"I know that!" she cried in exasperation.

"But is that what you're trying to tell me?" he drilled.

"That's exactly what I'm trying to tell you," Riley said solemnly.

**Hotch**

Hotch reluctantly split away from the rest of the agents. Just because he was the unemotional team leader, that didn't mean that he didn't get nervous. At this point, he felt that it was more fear of the unknown, especially for his team. He knew that his team could handle themselves, but much like Jack Dalton, he still worried about them. He may not be good at showing his emotions, but that didn't mean that he didn't care about any of them.

Hotch sighed and tried to refocus on his main task. He hadn't even realized that he had stopped walking until he broke away from his thoughts. He was about to go around another pile of scraps, so he quickly turned and cleared the next row while keeping his back covered. He sighed again as some adrenaline seeped out of him. This particular arrest was getting to him more than usual.

He really hated to think how the Phoenix team had dealt with this guy for so much longer than them. He was also still trying to profile the new team. He realized that Jack was very protective over all of them, giving him a father figure persona. Bozer and Riley were good friends and like the big siblings. There was Matty, who could almost match Hotch in a stare down, but also had a sort of motherly feeling about her towards the team. And then there was Mac. He was clearly the baby of the family judging by the way everyone protected him, but Hotch also knew that he was by far the most dangerous in the group.

Hotch grumbled. At first, he had really disliked these agents for taking over the case they were working, but now it felt kind of good to be working with another team. They both had the same goals in mind, and all Hotch wanted to do was lock this guy up and get back to Virginia.

**Jack**

Jack wanted to scream. He had been forced to split up from the kids, and now the coms weren't even working. He had heard the familiar cracking noise of a com dying in his ear about ten minutes ago. None of the kids were even armed so they could be hurt, and Jack didn't even know.

Of course, he was especially worried about Mac. He knew that Mac could take care of himself, damn he knew it, but this whack job was after him specifically. Jack had seen the effects of the torture Murdoc had inflicted on Mac before and he was NOT about to let that happen to his boy again.

There was a noise like quiet walking right behind him. Jack turned around just in time to find a fist flying towards his face. He managed slip the gun into his holster and half block the fist, so it only clipped the side of his face, but that was the last blow this guy was about to get in. Jack sent his own fist towards the guy's face. It connected with the man's face, but the guy retaliated with a sharp roundhouse kick that Jack barely dodged.

This guy was amusingly scrawny, but he was clearly very skilled in martial arts. With one swift movement, Jack whirled on him with a palm heel to the knows. Jack felt the familiar pop of the nose breaking and the nasal septum breaking away from the other parts. The guy didn't even get to roar in pain before he hit the ground unconscious with a thump, blood flowing from his nose.

Now that Jack had a moment to breathe, he glanced down at the perpetrator. He was very scrawny like Jack had originally noticed and he wore all black close. Obviously, he worked for Murdoc, but this whole ordeal lacked Murdoc's usual touch and finesse. Jack tried to ignore the strangeness of it all as he heard a scuffling on the other side of an old bulldozer. It sounded like another fight. He drew his gun again and advanced towards the noise.

**Reid**

Reid had his gun carefully drawn as he walked along the piles of junk. There were still times when he felt awkward carrying a gun, but his team trusted him to do it so that was all that mattered. Or that's what they said. He knew though that if someone saw him with a gun, they're first reaction wasn't exactly fear. All his life, he had been made fun of for being wimpy and skinny and nonathletic, but the team didn't seem to think it mattered.

He was kind of excited despite everything. For the first time, he had met someone that matched him intellectually. He had never met anyone that even came close, but this guy did. Not only that, but Mac had had a rough childhood, too. He really wanted to make friends with these new guys, but there was one prominent difference between him and Mac. Mac was very athletic and skilled in hand-to-hand combat while he was not.

Both portrayed their intellect differently. While Reid dressed and acted the part of a stereotypical nerd, Mac didn't. He was cool and funny and knew when to keep his mouth shut about certain things. Despite this, Reid actually really liked Mac.

Reid was abruptly stopped in his advances by a kick slamming painfully into his stomach. The vest usually would have protected him from this sort of kick, but it had some serious power behind it. He slammed to his knees with all of the breath effectively knocked out of him. Another kick came towards his face, but the advice Morgan had been giving him all of these years kicked in. He managed to roll out of the way of the kick at the last second. He grabbled for his gun which had flown out of his hands during the fight, but someone picked it up.

He gazed up at his attacker and saw a huge man dressed all in black pointing it right at his face. He put his hands up in a surrender, but the guy's hands didn't waver. Just as he closed his eyes to prepare for the inevitable, another set of hands came out of no where and disarmed the guy, effectively knocking him out in the process. Reid looked up to see Mac's partner Jack Dalton looking down at him. Dalton offered his hand down to the young genius who took it with a nod of thanks.

"You okay, kid?" Dalton asked him.

Reid nodded, "I just had the air knocked out of me."

Jack offered him his gun back. Reid took it gratefully. They both drew their weapons and continued forward.

**Prentiss**

Emily's mind drifted away as she cleared parts of the dump. With no com service, she didn't really have anyone to talk to. She knew that she should be focusing her full attention towards the Unsub they were trying to chase down, but her jumpy mind wanted to find an escape.

As she walked, she thought back to a conversation she had had with her mother. Right after she started with the BAU her mother had asked her if she enjoyed her job. She had replied by telling her that this wasn't exactly the kind of job you enjoyed. Not that she disliked her job, because she wouldn't have her career any other way, but the field she was in changed people. Prentiss knew that it took a certain kind of person to do what they did, and apparently, she was that certain type of person. She had never once considered being a diplomat like her mother, so she had pursued a career where she could bring justice in a different way.

One thing that she had never understood is how anyone could do some of the stuff she had seen to another human. There were people in the world who devoted their entire lives to figuring out people's brains, but even they didn't begin to understand how it worked. That was what was so terrifying about the job they did.

Emily tried to convince herself that this was just another job. As much as she tried though, her endeavors failed. Going into this, they all knew that this one was going to be different. It wasn't the stories that the Phoenix agents had told them or the fact that this guy had killed someone with the blade of a crayon sharpener that made this one different, it was the entire case. They had been sent here to figure out one simple kill and ended up chasing down this nutso serial killer.

And then there was the new agents. She still didn't know how she felt about them. They seemed like good people, and she trusted them, but they were strangers in all essence, and she was paranoid. The team also had an uncanny resemblance to theirs. Jack was like Morgan, Matty like Hotch, Mac like Reid of course, Riley like Penelope, and Bozer like…like…_her._ Emily shook her head warily; this was too much for her to be thinking about at the moment.

**Morgan**

Morgan was silently pleading this guy to show himself. After hearing and seeing some of the stuff he could do, Morgan was itching to lock him up. He really wanted to put a bullet or two in him, but Matty had given strict instructions to bring him alive unless someone was in life-threatening danger. Although he wasn't allowed to kill him, Matty hadn't said anything about roughing him up a bit.

Morgan slipped around a dilapidated piece of farm equipment and cleared the next sector. He was jut about to turn another corner when two men stepped right in his path. Morgan wanted to grin. He had been waiting for someone to challenge him since they had shown up and this was his opportunity to let off some steam.

The two men advanced towards him. One was carrying a huge piece of lumber with nails sticking out of it and the other clutched a butcher knife. This gave Morgan the upper hand seeing as they had close distance weapons while he had a pistol. He raised his gun and leveled it right between the two offenders.

"FBI! Don't move any closer!" he yelled, but both acted as if they were deaf and kept coming.

"I'm not going to tell you again, don't come any closer! Drop the weapons and put your hands in the air!" he growled, but both once again kept coming.

He had been through this before and it was almost second nature. Without hesitation, he pointed the gun at the one on the left and pulled the trigger. The bullet penetrated his chest, but he didn't watch it happen as he turned and shot the other. The two loud bangs resonated through what seemed to be the very desolate scrap yard. He ran over and immediately kicked the two's weapons away. It briefly crossed his mind how these guys hadn't attacked him, but he didn't dwell on it as he heard more footsteps coming his way.

**Mac**

Mac walked slowly along a pile of broken scaffolding. The coms had gone out, so he felt slightly vulnerable without Jack to back him up. Not carrying a gun had never bothered him before, and it still didn't, but Murdoc had done so many things to him that it unnerved him. In all honesty, he was hoping that he would come across anyone from their group, but particularly Jack of course.

Mac never let his own thoughts distract him on the job. He would freely admit that he was better at compartmentalizing than others, but that didn't exactly mean that he didn't have his times where he got lost in his own head. That was one of Jack's jobs, keeping him from retreating into his own head.

The two of them never openly displayed their familial love for each other, but they both knew it was strongly there. They complimented each other in ways that no other sets of partners did, and they had quite the reputation at the Phoenix for this reason. Not only that, but Jack's famous papa bear tendencies and Mac's deep hatred for medical.

Mac stopped as he sensed something near him. After doing this job for so long, he had developed a sort of intuition that alerted him to thing that were out of the ordinary. He didn't even have time to turn around and investigate, though, before he felt the familiar coolness of a gun barrel being pressed to his temple.

"Hello Angus, it's been a while, but I would like to formally meet your new friends. We'll be able to catch up later," a chilling sing-song voice that haunted most of Mac's nightmares whispered in his ear.

Murdoc had arrived.

**No one's POV**

Everyone pounded towards the sound of the two gunshots, each praying that they weren't too late. As they broke through the walls of junk, they could see Morgan standing over two goons with bloody holes in their chests. They all stopped in their tracks.

"What happened, Morgan?" Hotch asked.

"These two came out of nowhere. They kept coming towards me and wouldn't stop, so I had no choice but to shoot them. I don't think that either of them was Murdoc. It was weird, Hotch, I told them that if they stopped, I wouldn't shoot them, but they just kept coming," Morgan explained and turned towards Jack, "Neither of them was Murdoc, right?"

Jack shook his head, "Nah, Murdoc wouldn't have just silently kept walkin' towards ya. He feeds off of taunting his pray."

"Did anyone actually find Murdoc and what's up with the coms, Riley?" Emily asked.

Everyone shook their heads to the finding Murdoc question, but Riley spoke up about the coms, "The signal cut out right after we split. I've been working on trying to restore the connection, but it's like something is blocking me. I think Murdoc did something to the com satellite."

"Damn it," Morgan growled in frustration.

"Hey, where's Mac?" Bozer asked, suddenly alarmed.

Everyone whipped their head from side to side looking for the boy. Panic was rising on everyone's face when a voice rang out from across the open space of the junk yard.

"I think I know where our favorite genius is," a chilling voice practically sang. Murdoc emerged in all of his creepy glory. He was wearing his usual black leather trench coat, black pants and boots, and his ominous black leather gloves that went up to his elbows. He had a strap around his neck supporting a very elaborate rifle. The barrel was resting on Mac's temple.

Everyone raised their guns while Riley and Bozer took a step behind the line of fire. Murdoc chuckled maniacally.

"Well you guys just don't play around. But, since we're all here, I would like to meet my new friends. I don't know about you, but I prefer to know the people who are pointing guns at me."

"Shut up!" Emily hissed.

"Ah, Miss Prentiss, is that really anyway to talk to me? Especially when I can put a bullet in this beautiful genius' head with the slightest amount of pressure to my pointer finger," Murdoc taunted, smile widening the entire time.

"Alright Murdoc tell us who you think we are," Hotch prodded.

"Aaron Hotchner, I don't _think _I know who you are, I _know _I know who you are," he challenged, "You are Aaron Hotchner, the unit chief of the BAU. You have no sense of humor, but really do care about your team. Next to you is Emily Prentiss, the daughter of a diplomat, but the exact opposite of her mother. Derek Morgan, former Chicago PD and the BAU equivalent to good ol' Jack Dalton. David Rossi, a good friend of Hotchner's who has come out of retirement to once again help out at the BAU. Miss Jennifer Jareau or J.J, the media liaison who talks to the reporters, so you guys don't have to. Finally, we have young Dr. Spencer Reid who has an IQ of 187, an eidetic memory, and can read over 20,000 words per minute. How did I do?"

"You certainly do your research," Hotch replied.

"What do you want Murdoc!?" Jack growled finally. He had been trying to keep quiet during all of this, but Mac having a gun pointed at his head wasn't something he took lightly.

"Thank you, Jack. I was waiting for someone to get to the point. Here is what I propose: I walk out of here with my friend MacGyver and I let all of you go unscathed, simple as that. Do we have a deal?"

"No deal!" Morgan snapped.

"Alas, I suspected as much. But I must say that I am surprised. I had no doubt that Jack would put up a fight, but I'm surprised that the BAU team would also. MacGyver really is loveable," Murdoc cackled.

"We don't care what you have to say, Murdoc, just know that I won't hesitate to shoot you!" Jack growled.

"You won't shoot me because you don't have a clear shot. You would be risking shooting your boy and you would never do that Jack," Murdoc said.

They all knew that he was right. If Murdoc didn't shoot Mac before the bullet hit him, he would shift the boy over, so it hit him instead. That was definitely be something Murdoc would do.

"Just let him go Murdoc and we won't shoot you," J.J said quietly.

"Fine, J.J has convinced me. I won't shoot Angus in the head," Murdoc sighed.

A wave of relief went over the group. Whatever had come over Murdoc, it was a blessing. All though it seemed impossible, they weren't about to question it. Murdoc lowered his gun away from Mac's head. But, as it passed over his ribcage, Murdoc pulled the trigger.

**I'm sorry, I know I'm evil for leaving you on another cliff hanger. I need to get the next chapter of Safe and Sound done before I update this one, but hopefully both will be soon. See ya guys.**


	7. Chapter 7

**I'm up with chapter 7! I believe that I am nearing the end of this story; there will probably be this chapter and one more. I would just like to say something about my other stories. I sometimes use Spanish in them, and I am sorry if the translation is not perfect. I have been born and raised on English and it is my first and only language. Anytime I use Spanish, it is the work of Google Translate! But anyway, I just wanted to get that out there.**

**Just to do a little recap: The Phoenix and BAU agents went to the scrap yard to hunt down Murdoc. Morgan shot two of his men and the gunshots drew the rest of the agents to his location. Unfortunately, Murdoc found Mac first and was holding him at gun point in front of the other agents. They seemed to persuade him to let Mac go, but as Murdoc lowered the gun, he pulled the trigger right on top of his ribcage.**

Everyone watched in horror as Murdoc pulled the trigger. Mac collapsed to the ground and two guns went off without hesitation. With a grunt, Murdoc joined Mac on the ground as Jack and Morgan's bullets imbedded themselves into each of his shoulders.

"Mac!" Jack, Riley, and Bozer called out as everyone surged forward. Morgan and Prentiss yanked Murdoc up off of the ground and cuffed him. The psycho hissed in pain but grinned down at Mac all the same.

"Does it hurt a lot Angus?" he asked with barely contained excitement even as blood slowly dripped down from both of his shoulders.

"Shut the hell up!" Morgan snapped in his ear as him and Emily dragged Murdoc away from Mac. Everyone stepped back so that the Phoenix agents could kneel beside the blond boy. They all watched with horror clear on their faces.

The entire side of Mac's light blue button up was already beginning to be taken over by dark, crimson blood. His face had blanched white and his breaths were coming out in short, painful gasps. Jack knelt by his head and gently slipped his hands under Mac's arms.

"Alright, brother, I'm gonna pull you up to make it easier for you to breathe. Bozer, get your sweatshirt off," Jack ordered, never taking his eye off of his fallen partner. Jack gently pulled Mac off of the ground so that he was leaning solidly against Jack. The boy groaned in pain. Riley took his hand in hers and he squeezed it almost until his knuckles turned white. It had to have hurt her too, but she didn't complain.

Bozer handed Jack his sweatshirt and Jack balled it up in his hand. Without hesitation, Jack pressed it to the bullet wound. Mac cried out in pain and instinctually jerked away from him. "Whoa, Mac, it's okay. Just breathe," Bozer said, gently placing his hands on Mac's shoulders and pushing him back into Jack's chest.

"I'm sorry, bud, I'm sorry. We'll get you help soon; I'm sure Riley is already calling Matty up." Jack threw a pointed look at Riley who nodded reluctantly and began to pull her hand away in order to grab her rig which she had dropped in her rush to get to Mac. Up until this point, she hadn't had a chance to call Matty. Even though the coms were down, cell service wasn't.

"Don't go," Mac whispered to her through bloodless lips. She looked at him sympathetically and returned her grip to his hand. The Phoenix agents knew that Mac never would have said that if he wasn't so out of it with pain and blood loss. Even so, Riley couldn't bring herself to tear away from the boy that was like her little brother.

She looked fiercely at Jack. "I'm not leaving him." She looked over her shoulder, remembering for the first time that there were six other agents and a serial killer twenty feet away. She looked at Hotch, "Hotch, could you call Matty and tell her what's going on. I would but…" she trailed off when her voice cracked.

"I understand," he said solemnly. He remained his usual stoic self, but anyone who knew him well enough could tell he was worried. The two groups of agents had only been working together for about two days, but in this line of work, comrades quickly became friends, even family. Not only that, but there was something about the blond genius that made people want to protect him, just like the BAU already did with Reid. It was never easy to see anyone shot, but it was horrific with someone so seemingly innocent.

Hotch pulled out his phone and called the newly entered number in his phone. Matty, of course, picked up on the first ring. "Hotchner? What's going on out there? The com signal died, but I want to be updated now!"

"Tell her we need emergency MedEvac," Riley called with a shaking voice.

He relayed the information that was given to him by Riley and what was currently going on. He could hear Matty sigh on the other end. "I just wish that something would go right on at least one of their missions. As it is, I've demanded for emergency MedEvac, but even with the time rush, I can't get them there for twenty minutes. I'll keep trying but keep me posted. Tell Dalton to take care of Baby Einstein."

Hotch hung up the phone and stared blankly at his surroundings. He hadn't missed the way Matty had assumed that Jack was the one taking care of Mac or the affectionate "Baby Einstein" she had put on the end. It was becoming clearer by the minute how much of a family the Phoenix was, just like the BAU, and also the extent of Mac and Jack's partnership.

His thoughts were returned to the scene in front of him by a violent coughing noise. He looked and saw Mac coughing harshly, a wet gurgling sound resounding from his throat. Blood trickled out of his pale lips, _almost like a fountain, _Hotch thought sickeningly. When the fit died down, he collapsed back against Jack's chest with a weak wheeze.

"What's the ETA on the MedEvac!?" Jack demanded, still clutching Mac to his chest. The blood that Mac had coughed up and that had stained hi shirt was all over Jack at this point, but the older agent didn't even seem to care.

"Matilda says that she can't get them here for another twenty minutes," Hotch answered, and for one of the first times in his life, his voice didn't hold the usual confidence that everyone clung on to. He knew that this one was bad and that twenty minutes was too long.

Mac coughed again and more blood gurgled out of his throat, but this time, he began to choke on it. Jack jumped into action.

"Why is he coughing up blood?" Bozer asked in dismay.

Jack didn't immediately answer, he just leaned Mac forward and began to gently rub the boy's back as the blood he had previously been choking on began to dribble out of his mouth. When he had finished and was once again leaning back, Jack took the time to answer.

"I think the bullet nicked his lung," Jack said quietly, his voice wavering with emotion.

Everyone knew what that meant without having to be told. Mac's lungs were slowly filling up with blood, and eventually, he would either bleed out or drown on it.

Mac's eyelids began to flutter, but Jack shook him as roughly as he could without hurting him, which wasn't actually much of a shake. "Mac! No, come on man, you're not gonna do this. Keep those eyes open; I want to be able to see those baby blues."

Mac did manage to pull his eyelids partially open again. He slurred, "Tired."

"I know you are bud, but you can't sleep right now. Once you get to the hospital and all fixed up, you can sleep all ya want. Just please don't go to sleep yet," Jack begged. The hard-core Delta was clearly almost in tears. "We're not about to have another Cairo, man," he whispered.

While Jack was trying his best to hold it together, as were Hotch and Rossi, the others weren't. Riley was freely letting tears slide down her face as she clutched Mac's rapidly cooling hand to her chest. Emily and J.J weren't far behind in the tear department, while Spencer and Bozer were utterly frozen in shock, and Morgan was seething at Murdoc with barely controlled rage. The serial killer in question was actually bleeding a good bit too, but his injuries weren't life threatening, and frankly, no one cared.

"This is no fun," Murdoc whined, even having the audacity to add in a small pout. Morgan shook him roughly, causing him to hiss in pain. "Didn't I tell you to keep your mouth shut?"

But, knowing they weren't going to kill him, at least not while Mac was like he was, Murdoc pressed on. "I didn't even get his blood on my hands. I mean, there's nothing poetic about watching some orphan genius bleed out and choke on his own blood. Where's the spice, the beauty in the art?"

For a moment, the six agents stared at him in horror. Over the years, they had come across all kinds of Unsubs with varying levels of mental instability, but this was new even for them. Never had they ever come across someone as sadistic as him. Not even Tobias Hankel had been this bad when he kidnapped Reid.

"You realize that you just shot a government agent. You didn't paint a Picasso," Emily hissed.

Murdoc sighed, "Ah, yes Miss Prentiss, I am quite aware, but you see, Mac and I have been having a lot of fun and when I finally have the chance to finish my work, I get arrested. It's quite disheartening. But, we've had some good times, haven't we Angus?"

When no response came towards the direction of Mac, Murdoc looked acutely upset. "Alas, he doesn't seem up to having a conversation. Although, I'm not sure that he ever will be again."

"Just stand here and keep your mouth shut!" Morgan growled, once again giving him a rough shake. Murdoc smirked, but abided by the rules this time.

The BAU agents returned their gazes to the fallen genius in front of them. It was clear that he was rapidly weakening. He wasn't even wincing anymore at the steady pressure that Jack was still applying to his wound.

"J-Jack," Mac whispered, moving his head up to gaze at Jack. It seemed that even that small movement sapped almost all of the remaining amount of energy from the young agent.

Jack ran a gentle hand through Mac's hair with his free hand as he began to not-so-subtly rock the agent. In a gentle tone he whispered, "I'm right here, bud. I'm not going anywhere."

"G-guys, I-I'm-" he was cut off by his body being racked with another violent coughing fit, "S-sorry."

His eyes slipped shut.

"Mac! Mac!" Jack cried desperately, shaking him despite the wound, "Come on man, wake up. Don't do this to me, please!"

Riley was sobbing now. "Jack!" she cried desperately, "I can't find a pulse!" Her hand flew up and down Mac's limp wrist, applying pressure every now and then.

"Damn it!" Jack cried.

"You have to start CPR!" Rossi demanded.

"I can't," Jack explained quietly, his voice shaking, "If I do, it could cause more damage to his lungs. All I can do is try and keep him from choking on the blood."

Jack gently laid the boy down on the ground and rolled him over so he wouldn't choke on the blood coming up his throat. Even though he wasn't breathing, in theory, if they kept his airways clear, he may start on his own. They all knew that it was highly unlikely, but they all hoped against hope itself.

"I hear the chopper!" Bozer gasped, shielding his eyes against the sun and gazing into the sky, "I can see it too!"

"You hear that brother? You're gonna be fine. Just hang on. Your one of the toughest people I know, you've got this," Jack murmured to Mac.

They all moved out of the way so that the helicopter had room to land and they wouldn't get their heads cut off by the spinning blades. The second it had touched the ground and the propellers had slowed down enough for the Phoenix EMTs to safely exit, they did. Two paramedics ran over to Mac, clutching medical equipment. Another followed a few seconds later, pushing a stretcher.

The two with the equipment knelt beside Mac. Bozer reached up and gently touched Jack's arm. "Jack, step back. They can't help Mac if you're in the way."

Jack nodded stiffly and allowed himself to be pulled towards everyone else by Bozer. Jack watched in fear as they tried to bring his boy back to life. Mac had already beat the odds so many times; he had survived Cairo, being locked in a room filling with VX nerve gas, and being tortured by Murdoc. He was going to make it through this too. Mac had already proved Jack's own thoughts wrong by making it through the whole twenty minutes when he was sure that this was going to be the end for him.

Riley silently wrapped her arms around him, and he put a comforting arm around her shoulder. She cried silently as Bozer came and put a hand on her shoulder. The BAU agents watched both the bleeding genius and his colleagues.

It amazed them all the amount affection between all of them. Jack seemed to love Mac more than life itself and seemed to be willing to do anything to secure his wellbeing. They all watched in silence, except for Murdoc him was snickering happily every now and then, as the EMTs worked. They attached a little blue balloon to the end of a tube and lowered it down Mac's throat. One of them began to squeeze the other end as Mac's lungs began to move in rhythm with the pumping.

"Still no pulse," the first one stated. Riley gave a sharp intake of breath and let lose another sob. They slowly withdrew the tube from Mac's throat.

"We got get him started on the defibrillator," the second EMT said.

"They could case his damaged lung to collapse," the first one said.

"We don't have a choice. If we don't, we're going to lose him. We're just going to have to rely on the fact that they'll be able to fix it in surgery," the third one explained.

The first one began to hook him up to the paddles and the machine to go with them. An automated voice told them to deliver a shock. They did. Nothing. They did it again. Nothing. On the third time, one of them checked his pulse again.

"We got him! Get him loaded up on to the stretcher and let's move. We don't have any time to waist."

They got Mac situated on the stretcher and wheeled him away towards the helicopter. "One of you can come on the helicopter with us," one of them called over their shoulder. Riley gently nudged Jack. "You should go with him." Jack nodded and didn't hesitate to jog after the stretcher.

Emily came over and gently wrapped her arms around Riley. They all silently turned and began their trek back towards the cars that Matty had sent in after they had called for MedEvac. There was also an armored police car with multiple officers waiting to take Murdoc so everyone else could head straight to the hospital.

**0000**

"We've got a bleed somewhere. We've got to get a clamp on it," the head surgeon said as one of his residents handed him a clamp.

"I can't locate it," the surgeon murmured.

"BP's dropping," one of the nurses informed him.

"I can't see" he practically growled, "Suction!"

The noise that any surgeon dreaded to hear filled to OR. "He's crashing!" the nurse cried.

**0000**

Everyone sat solemnly in the hospital waiting room. Riley had her head leaning up against Jack's shoulder, but for once, he was returning any comfort. The entire time they had been waiting, over five hours now, he hadn't said a word. He had just stared off blankly, stuck in his own world.

Matty had shown up soon after the rest of them arrived. She informed them that Murdoc was in custody and awaiting interrogation, but she said that she was more worried about Mac at this point.

The man they knew as the head surgeon in Mac's procedure suddenly appeared from down a hallway. He glanced at his clipboard and called out, "Angus MacGyver."

**There is the end of chapter 7! I'm sorry that I left you on another cliff hanger (not really :) ) but I didn't think that this one was quite as bad. I have no knowledge in the medical field, so if anything is inaccurate, I'm sorry. I also never meant for this to turn into a Mac whump chapter, but here we are. Even so, I hope that it was enough whump for you. See ya!**


	8. Chapter 8

**This is the final chapter! Since this is a sort of epilogue, this chapter is going to be considerably shorter than the others. I'm not going to talk anymore so we can just get on with this.**

Every agent heard the surgeon call out Mac's name. Every one of them stood, and the doctor seemed a little surprised by the sheer number of them, but one look at all of their anxious faces told him to tell them despite the fact that they couldn't all be family.

"Angus lost a lot of blood suffered major trauma to his lung, but he managed to pull through in the end. We repaired the puncture and got the bullet out. He's going to be weak and sore for a while, but he should make a full recovery," the surgeon informed them. The tension immediately ceased in the room and grins replaced it. The girls even began to cry all over again.

The doctor remained stoic. "Who's his medical power of attorney?"

Jack looked up; the grin gone from his face. "Me. Why?"

"There is something I am liable to tell you, but I can't while the rest of them are here because of patient confidentiality," the doctor said, gesturing to the others.

"Nah, it's good. Mac's form say that you can reveal anything medical related to anyone as long as I approve. I approve," Jack consented.

The doctor sighed, "Fine. We did lose Angus one time on the table, but we were able to find the location of the bleed that was causing it and get a clamp on it."

"That's all? I'm relieved; ya had me goin' there for a minute," Jack said; the grin back in place, "When can we see him?"

"He hasn't even woken up from anesthesia yet, but I will allow one person to go back and sit with him until he does wake up. After that, he can have as many visitors as he can handle."

A silent agreement went through the group that Jack would go back to the room. Without having to be told, Jack followed the surgeon back to the room. Jack mentally prepared himself for what he would see. He had seen Mac in all kinds of different situations, but the hospital always seemed to be the worst. It was hard for Jack to see Mac, who usually couldn't sit still for longer than a minute, completely unmoving for hours, sometimes days, at a clip.

When he entered, he saw that Mac wasn't hooked up to any sort of breathing machine. That was an immediate relief to Jack. He figured that the bullet must have just clipped his lung and not full on put a hole in it; that was the only thing that could explain the lack of breathing help. Mac was still unconscious, just like the doctor had said, but he didn't look like a corpse. He was hooked up to an IV and a nasal cannula. The only other piece of equipment was a heart monitor that gave off a steady beep, reassuring Jack that his worst fear hadn't yet come true.

Silently, he pulled a chair up beside Mac's bed. TO his surprise, he had barely gotten himself situated when Mac began to stir.

"Hey," he wheezed.

"You make us all think you're dead, and 'hey' is the best you can come up with? That's lame man," Jack said, half joking half not.

"I'm alive right?" Mac asked with a ghost of a smirk on his face.

"For now, my man, but you got to stop doin' this kinda stuff. You're gonna put me in my grave!" Jack said. Mac gave a weak laugh.

"Hey where is everyone?" Mac asked, just then realizing that Jack was the only one present.

"They were forced to stay in the waiting room. There was only one person allowed to come back while you were still out, and I was elected. I'll go tell a nurse to send them back."

Jack then got up and had a conversation with a nurse that Mac couldn't see. He came back and sat in the chair to wait for everyone else.

Not more than a minute later, everyone else poured into the room. "Mac!" Riley cried and gently put her arms around him. Mac patted her on the back in response. "Hey, Ri."

"Good to see you back in the land of the living," Bozer said with a grin. Everyone moved to the side in order to allow Matty passage.

"It's good to know that you're alright, Blondie," she said quietly, "But if you ever do something like this again, I won't hesitate to fire you." Everyone, including Mac, couldn't help but laugh at this.

"We're glad you're okay, Mac, but we need to get going. Our flight back to Virginia is leaving soon," Hotch said.

"It was good to meet you guys," Mac said and everyone else nodded in agreement.

"Well, if you ever need help again, don't hesitate to call us," Hotch said.

"The same with the rest of you," Matty agreed.

The BAU team turned to leave, each happy to have made some new friends those past few days. Although the last few hours had been scary, everyone had made it out okay and their Unsub had been apprehended and no one had died.

It didn't matter that they worked on different sides of the country or for different organizations because that was a good day regardless.

**All done! Like I said, I know it was very short, but it was an epilogue. I really wish that the producers would have done a MacGyver/Criminal Minds crossover before it had ended, but alas they didn't. Bye for now!**


End file.
